Illinois Visitors

We had a great visit with LuAnn and David when they came up for Christmas. Here are some of the things we did during their time spent here;
-Open gifts the evening they arrived
-Played Christmas bingo, pictionary, and "I have never" games
-Went horse riding with LuAnn (who rode Dixie and Blaze) on a very snowy trail
-Went to see the movie "Bolt" at the theater
-Talked about dirtbiking with the Baurers
-Boys slumber party in the basement for 3 days
-fun snacks including Kitchen Cooked potatoe chips from Illinois

Thank you, LuAnn and David, for sharing your Christmas days with us. Even though the weather outside was frightful (or just really rainy) the atmosphere inside was delightful!

Santa Clause Parade

Here is a photo of Leah and Sydney (a friend) riding in the Santa Clause Parade on Sat. It was bright, sunny day, but REALLY cold! The girls are dressed up as Wise (wo)men and even had the horses wearing costumes. It was a lot of fun, but those toe warmers came in handy! (Julia was unable to ride due to a bad cold)

Christmas School Concert

Here are some pictures of Julia and Leah singing in the school concert. They did a musical about Mr. Scrooge. It was cute, but will be Leah's last Linwood school concert.

This. . .

. . .is what the front end of the pick-up truck that hit the neighbor's tree looked like after it stopped. I had been making a left hand turn into my driveway while pulling the horse trailer (after the Santa Clause parade), when this pickup passed me on the left. He narrowly missed me by driving into the ditch and hitting the next door neighbor's tree instead. I was TOTALLY unaware anyone was passing me when I turned. (I had looked twice before pulling out, and it was clear both ways). I DID have my signal on and the driver of the truck said he thought I had just forgot to turn it off, so that was why he decided to pass me. I had pulled out of Grandma's front parking lot, onto the road, and was turning around in our driveway. I had signalled properly the whole time. There were no charges laid, no one got hurt (PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!) and only one vehicle was damaged. I am sorry it was his, but I do believe he was speeding and drivingtoo fast for the slippery roads.

Because he came INCHES from hitting me on my side (the driver's side), I keep thanking God for causing me to hesitate just moments before I turned into the driveway. I have NO doubt it was His protection that preserved me because I am sure it would have been a LIFE CHANGING experience had he hit me. It took him hitting a tree after travelling about 100 yards, in deep snow drifts, in the ditch, to finally get stopped. Again, thankfully he wasn't hurt either.

THANK YOU, LORD!

Updates

Some update on recent happenings at home.

A couple of weeks ago, we had so much heavy snow that our outdoor horse shelter partially collapsed. Two of the supporting posts broke. Thankfully, Jim's dad, Earle, came up with the tractor to lift the fallen roof up until we could find someone to fix it. I didn't want to leave it too long or the whole thing would have come down. We did find some local Mennonite men to fix it the same day, so now it is better than new!

I guess I am going to be coaching the girls' basketball team in Jan.-Feb. I got a note from the school saying they weren't going to have a team unless someone volunteered to coach. Leah really wanted to play so I said I would help. Hopefully, they will guide me thru this a bit. I am pretty rusty on all the rules! I would prefer to just be the assistant coach, but I might not have that option.

Julia and Leah are looking forward to riding their horses in the Santa Clause parade this Sat. I am hoping for a warm, sunny day. If not warm, at least sunny???!! We have a friend who will be riding with them and they are dressing up as the 3 wise men.

The post office has been very busy these past few weeks. I am learning lots and it really helps to work every day when it comes to learning all the post office boxes. They have around 600 boxes to learn. Not to mention all there is to know about the retail end of it. This job is cleaning out the cobwebs in my brain!!

This weekend we were busy partying. We had St. Jacobs post office party on Sat. evening and St. Clements post office party on Sun. evening. We enjoyed seeing everyone and I enjoyed not having to cook for 2 nights.

Looking forward to the kids' Christmas program at school on Wed. evening. They are doing a play about Scrooge. Julia and Leah are the only ones in it this year. Daniel doesn't like doing them. He is a great singer and would do well on the stage, but has NO interest. Maybe if it was a play about dirtbiking??? This week is their last week of school until after the new year. I am looking forward to the slower pace and more help at home for cleaning for company! :)

Family Updates

Just a few updates on the Baxters since the last post:

Jim has been extremely busy at work with winter coming extra early. He has been getting up at 4:30am to leave at 5:30 and works until about 5pm. He is usually to bed early (much to my kids' annoyance because it means they have to go to bed early too!) There are also two guys off at work, so it means extra work for everyone.

Andrew just bought himself a new laptop computer from all that dough he made flipping burgers! He is busy playing with that when he is not working. I am hoping this will free up the computer more for others to use AND he will get more homework done:)

Hannah is working hard at school and social studies (I mean SOCIAL studies!) She is always trying to stay connected with her friends whether it is through MSN, Facebook, or the phone. The phone line is always tied up when the kids are home from school now. High school has opened up a whole new batch of friends for her and it is exciting to see her grow up. Fashion is still her thing, so if you are wondering what to buy her for Christmas; a gift card to the mall works great!

Leah is working on beating my high school record at trying to be involved in every club, sport, or activity going on. She is a hard worker, but there are only so many hours in a day to do it all. And her chauffeurs don't want to be on the road every night of the week for her activities. She is finished with volleyball and looking forward to basketball. Not to mention Christmas play, pony club, dog and horse chores, homework, etc. that she is still working on.

Daniel is having a great time with his new camera (we will post some pictures soon). He likes to take it sledding (I know, it scares me too!) and video tape his friends going over the jumps on their sleds. He also really enjoys Odie and likes it when they are allowed in the house (that would be when Dad is not home or when it is too cold outside.)

Julia is hanging in there and this year she is helping Leah every evening with the horse chores. She is also trying to squeeze some sledding in after school when the older ones agree to go with her. She likes playing out in the snow and building snow horses (sound familiar???)

I am busy working every day at the post office and this looks like a long-term temporary position. I am finished with my job at the youth center as of tomorrow. I did take the time recently to build an insulated dog house for the dogs out in the shed so they would have a little more warmth in the winter. They already have a heat lamp and a heated bed, so I am hoping they will be nice and toasty in their new house.

New Chairs

Here is a picture of two of the four chairs we bought recently for our table. We had bought a new table several months ago but it didn't come with chairs. These were at a local auction (brand new) and we were able to get them for $10 apiece.

I am done with my youth center job on Dec. 10. I am unable to do both the post office and youth center together and keep up with the family. I will miss the work and kids but not the evening hours.

Hannah is now working at the Crosshill store. She has been training for the last two weeks. She is excited to be making some money at something besides babysitting.

Happy Birthday, Daniel

Last week, Daniel had his 11th birthday. He asked for a camera, so that is why his is so happy with just a few candy bars and cards seen in the photo. The rest of the money went towards the camera. Thank you G'ma and G'pa Siebenthal and A. Jane for some contributions to that gift. Hard to believe he is actually 11 already!

Winter Has Arrived!

These past two days, we have had some very wintry weather. I think we have already gotten about 5 inches and it is still snowing and blowing. Julia and Daniel took advantage of the snow this afternoon and did some sledding. (Missed you David!) It is too EARLY to have to get all the snowsuits/boots/gloves/scarves/hot chocolate out of storage! But it sure is beautiful when the sun comes out! I am sooooo thankful to live where it snows at least some during the year. There is nothing like being outside on a cold, sunny day after a fresh snowfall.

Music Award

Hannah recently received a letter from the Canadian National Conservatory of Music informing her she was the recipient of the Silver Medal for earning the highest mark in Canada for Grade Two Piano during the 2007-08 year. Her award will be presented on July 14, 2009 at the CNCM convocation in Palmerston, ON.

This is a very high achievement because she was the best in her level in all of Canada. We are very happy for her. Even though she is happy about it, too, she still does not want to continue piano at this time. Congratulations, Hannah, we are proud of you!

What to do on your day off???

Go for a trail ride, of course. Today the kids had off from school and I took the afternoon/ evening off work, so we went for a trail ride. Marlene, our neighbor and friend, rode Doc and I rode Dixie. All went well and we even got home before the rain came. Dixie is really quiet and I am amazed at how well she is doing.

Employee of the Month

Andrew was recently awarded McDonald's Employee of the Month. He recieved a plaque and a nice wrist watch. Good job, Andrew!

This Weekend. . .

. . .we have been playing ranchers and have been stringing up our arena fence. I bought a white, vinyl coated, high tensile fence and Leah and Julia (and Jim at times) helped me put it up. We still have a ways to go, but good weather is coming this week. We are learning lots about fencing, yeehaw!

. . .we went to Jim's great uncle and aunts 60th wedding anniversary open house. Uncle Elmer and Aunt Jeanette, congrats on 60 years together! It was good to see them both looking quite young. Maybe it is the dancing they do every week that keeps them so spry!

. . .we rode our new horse, Dixie. We rode her in the arena on Sat. evening and she did great. We took her out on the trail on Sun. evening and she did quite well. She was excellent along the road with the traffic and the noisy buggies. Her canter is a bit rough, but I think that will come with more work in the arena. Julia is very excited about riding her, though!

. . . the time changed and we got an extra hour of sleep before church. The good news is I will be able to walk earlier in the morning because it is light earlier. The bad news is we don't have much daylight after school to ride horses or do outdoor projects when the kids get home from school.

. . . I told my boss at WCS that I will be giving up my evening job at the Youth Center. I got a steady morning job (every morning during the week) at the Post Office. I tried doing both of them for a week and realized it will just not work. I am already missing too much time with the family and I would really like my evenings back to be home with them. I do love the work, but will just be a casual after November.

We Found Her

Our new horse that is. Yesterday we bought a new large pony for the family. Yes, you read that right, for the family. She is a registered palomino appaloosa who is very quiet to ride and work around. She is just under the horse size and will be eligible for pony club. That is something we needed because Julia and Leah both want a sound pony to ride in pony club. I wanted a pony big enough that Jim and beginner friends (and myself) could ride on trails. So, we think we found that in "Dixie." I will post pictures when we get her here.

Another Goodbye. . .

. . .to our darling little puppies. They both were sold last Friday and went to their new homes. Their new owners seem really nice and we feel they will have great homes. They have since been named Lola and Charlie, instead of Casey and Elliot.

POA Prospect

Here is a photo of a POA (Pony of America) pony we went to ride on Saturday. She is a 5 year old registered large pony and very quiet. We are seriously considering buying her and selling Stella. She is large enough she could carry an adult, but small enough for Leah and Julia to ride in pony club. She was very nice and quiet, just a little green with steering. She does have the typical appy mane and tail; not much!

Bowlathon

Today was our annual Bowlathon fundraiser at work. I bowled on the staff team. The top picture are some of my co-workers, including my fellow youth worker, Kelly (first on the left). Julia came with me and got to bowl some frames. Above, she is trying to perfect the "granny style" technique. Notice the Canadian style of five pins with a small ball. I think it is harder than the 10 pin game, but either way, I won't ever bowl anywhere close to 400!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving

Today we had the Baxter clan over for Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous day and the kids were able to eat out on the picnic table. The colors are SOOOOOO beautiful right now and we hope to do some hiking tomorrow. It was great to see everybody and catch up on the family news.

We sold one of our pups, but she won't be leaving us for 2 weeks yet. I hope we sell the male soon, so he won't be left alone! He is a whiner like his daddy! He does look like he may have some long hair genes in him because he is quite fluffy. They both are very cute and at a fun, playful stage.

Not too much else for news. I will still try to post some pictures of our Toyota Echo. Jim and I are both in love with it! It is a DREAM to parallel park and do U-turns with!

Hello. . .

. . . to a few new(er) faces at the Baxters.

1.) We finally decided to retire the Ford Windstar and recently bought a used Toyota Echo. It is a really easy car to drive and my favorite color, silver. We are putting the Windstar in storage until Andrew gets his driver's license and then we will gift it to him :)

2.) Currently, we have a horse on a 1 month trial basis. He is a 4 year old registered bay Quarter Horse gelding. He is green broke (only ridden a couple of times), but very friendly and seems very promising so far. If he works out and we keep him, I am hoping to make him my horse and sell Doc.

3.)I finally broke down and bought a cell phone! It is only a pay-as-you-go one but it will give the kids a little more accessibility to me when I am not home.

A Little Getaway

. . .for Mom and Dad. Last Sunday, we left the kids home and went to Hockley Valley Resort for a few days. We took out the back seats of the van, and put our bikes in. There were some really great biking/hiking trails and we did a lot of that on our trip. The resort was really nice and every morning we received a hot buffet breakfast (very important to Dad!) I don't play golf, but was really wishing I knew how because they had the neatest course I have ever seen. It was on the side of a very large hill (beside their skiing hills) and had some STEEP grades on the golf road. The trees were starting to turn colors and the weather was SO perfect! I am already looking forward to next year!

The kids did very well at home by themselves. They insisted they did not want/need a babysitter, so we let them try staying alone. I do hope they remembered that Monday was school picture day and everyone combed their hair and put some clean clothes on!

Goodbye. . .

. . .to Sierra, who went to her new home yesterday. She was a GREAT first horse for Leah and it was VERY sad to see her go. We are happy that she will have a good home, though. (Look how small Leah is in the photo. This is 2 1/2 years ago.)

Fair Fun

Horses, bikes, and fair rides all got ridden this past week at the fall fair. Daniel rode his bike in the parade, Leah and Julia rode their horses (along with their friends) in the parade, and the top photo is Julia on one of the rides. She told me (in a very dejected voice) the rides were too slow and boring (comparing it to Canada's Wonderland and Six Flags!) and she wished she had spent her money on something else! She will know for next year. Hannah and Andrew missed out in all the fun because they were at school/work.

Fergus Fall Fair

Here is Leah after a winning ride with Blaze at a recent horse show. She beat 11 other competitors to win first in a jumping class. She is very excited as you can tell by the photo.

Puppy update

Here is a recent picture of Ellie's pups. We are planning on keeping the female (the red and white one) and selling the male. They are really growing and just opened their eyes this past week. They are sooooooo CUTE!!

September Updates

Everyone seems to be settling in for the school year. Andrew has volleyball tryouts tomorrow morning. Hannah is getting more comfortable with high school. Leah is enjoying being at the top of the school this year in Grade 8. Daniel is looking forward to riding his bike to school before it gets too cold (it is about 4 miles and this is the first year we will let him do it). Julia is happy she got a really good teacher this year.

Tomorrow is the Wellesely Fall Fair (kind of like a 4-H fair for all you Americans) and we are taking 3 horses. They do have some classes and Leah's 4-H horse club is doing a precision riding demonstration. They will also ride their horses in the parade (remember doing that, Linda, in the Spoon River Day Parade??) All the kids get out of school for the afternoon and the local schools always have a group that walks in the parade. They then have a carnival after the parade. There is also the exhibition building with all the exhibits and a pet show. This will be the first year in many we aren't bringing kittens/cats to the pet show.

Back to the Books

This past Tuesday, the kids started back to school. So far, it has been a pretty smooth transition. Hannah had the biggest change with starting high school. She is getting along fine, but thinks it will be a lot of studying. But, she has not gotten lost or been late, so she is happy.

School brings a change in my work hours, so now I am back to working 3 evenings a week. Andrew is back to working after school hours also.

The puppies are growing fast and Ellie is such a GOOD mom. Odie is curious about the pups but has no close contact with them as they are always in their box. We are enjoying the whole process (although, cleaning out the dirty papers isn't the funnest thing!)

FINALLY!!!!!

This morn. (fri. 29) Ellie finally had her pups!!! it was around 1:00am when she finally had the first one (the chocolate daple)who is a male, and then an hour later had the light brown one (who is a female). They look like kittens, except for their little heads are bigger, soooooooooo cute!

Family Biking

We decided to bike on the Trans Canada Rail Trail on Monday, but the kids found it quite (yawn) boring. As you can see below, they had more fun on the rail than the trail. We did find a park (Mono Cliffs Park) to do some real mountain biking on later in the afternoon. Most of them had a great time, but a few were too tired to enjoy much else.

Monday. . .

. . .we went to Caledon, ON for a day of biking and hiking. Jim took the day off of work and the weather was perfect. Here are some pictures of a small park of some badlands. The kids (and Dad) had lots of fun running and biking there. We had brought a picnic lunch and ate it there. There were a couple of bike crashes, but nothing too serious! Above is Andrew biking.

Jim trying Andrew's BMX bike.

D Rally

Last weekend was a big one for Leah and Blaze. She went to a pony club event called the D Rally. She had to compete in 4 events on which they got scored on. There were probably 150 riders/horses at this rally, but not all were in her category. The above photo is her getting ready to do the Dressage event.

This is a photo of Leah on Blaze in the stadium jumping event. They did real well and placed 6 out of 29.

Here is a photo of them doing the Cross-Country course. There were several jumps set up in a large field and they had to jump them in a certain order within a certain amount of time. In this event, each rider was allowed 2 refusals, but on the third, they were disqualified. Blaze had his 3rd refusal on the last jump, so Leah was disqualified from X-country. Otherwise, they did well. (No falls, broken bones, or ER visits!)

This is a photo of some of the other riders in their pony club group. They are in the warm-up ring just before it started.

Surgery?

I just had my doctor's appointment regarding my knee. She said the MRI showed that I had 1) torn cartilage 2) a stretched or torn ACL (ligament) and 3) the beginning of arthritis in that knee. She is sending me to an orthopedic surgeon to schedule me for surgery for the torn cartilage and possibly the fix the ligament. I am then to have several months of rehab and buy a $1600 knee brace! I sure hope my husband's insurance pays for this! I am not having much pain in it right now so it is tempting to just not do anything. I will see what the surgeon says.

On a different note, we are pretty sure Ellie May is going to have pups (I know we said that before, but this time she looks pretty big!). We have been busy fixing up the dog shed to make a few pens to seperate her from Odie when she has them. We may already have 2 of them sold. But,. . . .I guess you can't count your puppies before they are born! Ellie is due the end of August, right when school is due to start again!

Leah is busy preparing Blaze for the D rally. This is a big day for people in Pony Club. She will compete in dressage, show jumping and cross country jumping. Hope he does well for her. Wish all you horse lovers could come for this; I think you would really enjoy seeing the event.

We are currently planning to go to Canada's Wonderland in one week with the Youth Centre. All my kids are going to go, but we need at least 20 people to come to pay for the bus. We are getting a great deal at the gate, so I hope we get to go. Jim is not coming because he has a training day he has to go to.

Fun In The Sun

Monday up here was a holiday (Civic Holiday) so we decided to pack up our bikes and head to the beach/bike trails. Andrew had to work at McDonalds so he was not able to go with us. We had a great time on the bike trails and even got to wade in the Maitland River by the waterfalls. We then had a great lunch at our favorite restaurant, Patty O'Neals in Goderich. After that, we went to the beach and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the water and sand. The weather was great (a little rain on the bike ride) for the day. I did bring by camera, but left it in the van so there are no pictures; only memories!

Our Week. . .

. . .in review.

Andrew has been quite busy with McDonalds this past week and even had to ride his bike to work from St. Jacobs one day. I was at work at the post office there and couldn't get him to work in time, so he rode with me and biked to Elmira (only about 4 miles or so). He was just glad he didn't have to ride from home (15 miles), so he didn't mind having to get out of bed at 6:30 to go with me to work.

I have been working 2 jobs this week; mornings at the post office, and afternoons at the youth centre. I am glad for both jobs, but when they come on the same day it gets pretty busy. The kids have been enjoying coming to the YC every day with me to play RockBand and Guitar Hero. I have mixed feelings about them playing these rock songs every day and some of the songs I won't let them play. We have been doing some fun day trips at the YC; including movies, swimming, water park, mini golf and we have an ongoing contest this summer which has other fun activities. Needless to say, the summer is going by very FAST. Not a whole lot of time for riding, but the bugs are TERRIBLE in the woods anyway.

Hannah and Leah did the neighbor's chores this week. He raises German Shepherds and had several pups there. They enjoyed playing with them and got paid well. Daniel and Julia did another neighbor's chores and had to collect chicken eggs every day. Sadly, one of the chickens died while we were doing the chores. I guess you don't call in the vet for a chicken!

Aunt Jane came for several days last weekend and we enjoyed having her. We also had Ken and Mardell Dietz, Ken and Bernice Schneider, and Walt and Betty Herrmann for supper one evening. This small house can be stretched to hold a good sized group when needed!

Jim has kept busy at work, but is ASKING if we can go horseback riding again sometime this weekend! We've got to find a better helmet for him though!

Knee Update

I got the results from my MRI on my knee. I did tear the ACL (ligament) and the only way to repair it is to have surgery. I could choose not to have the surgery but I would have to limit my activities. If I choose to have the surgery, it will include about 8 months of dedicated rehabilitation. I am not sure what I am going to do, so if you all would please pray for me regarding that I would appreciate it.

Triple Twins?

Twins with long, silky blond hair must run in the Siebenthal family!

Family Fun