The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Nico and I. This also means it's the first day of being gone from Eli ALL DAY!!!! So you know me... a turning point in our lives, so I have to take a picture.

We've been taking him to Betsy & Matt's house for small periods of time (3 hrs or so) and he's done pretty good. I on the other hand, have not. :) Ok, just the first day... I had a small breakdown leaving him. It had nothing to do with Betsy and Matt but everything with leaving him in the care of someone else. As I got busy during the day it was fine. I got used to being back in the swing of things and while I did think about him, I didn't get weepy.

Today, I did pretty good... I only got teary eyed, but no actual tears fell. I could see being emotional if your kid was attached to your leg and screaming for you not to got, but that was NOT the case. Eli loves it there. I sit him down to play and he doesn't even know I'm gone!! :)

But boy was I excited to see my son tonight after volleyball practice!! It was WONDERFUL!! We got him home and he was tired, so we knew we needed to put him to bed, but neither Nico or I wanted too because we hadn't seen him much. So... Eli ended up staying up a little later than usually playing with mom and dad while we ate our supper on the living room floor to be closer to him. :) Eventually we conceded that we needed to put him to bed and he's sleeping quite well!!

It's only the beginning of "first day of schools" and "going back to the babysitters".... I'm SURE with time we'll all get used to it!!

Watching Daddy Coach for the First Time

Tonight was the Carroll vs Northrop Scrimmage. It's not an actually game... each team just runs a set number of plays from different places on the field. But it is a good way to see how you match up with another team. After only practicing against each other for 2 weeks... it's nice to play against someone else.

For the most part, Carroll looked good!! :) Eli did a great job and stayed up the whole time. By the end though, if he could speak, he would have been saying, "Take me home woman, I'm tired... I'll see Dad tomorrow!" But I wanted them to see each other before we left and Eli went to bed for the night.

Here's a picture from tonight... The first of many "After the Game Father-Son Pictures"

Paw Paw and His Boys

Monday, my dad took Keenan and Eli to go visit the Lutheran Air helicopter.

When they were walking in, my dad ran into one of the flight nurses, who he also is good friends with. She was VERY willing to give Keenan and Eli the tour of the helicopter. While they were there, some of AMR's ambulances stopped by, so they also got an up close tour of an ambulance.

Needless to say, all 3 boys has a GREAT time.... hard to tell who had the best time. :) They had such a good time, the little boys both fell asleep on the way home. (Luckily dad didn't too:) Too much excitement for 1 day!!

Bachelorette Party

This weekend was sister-in-law Andrea's Bachelorette party in Indianapolis. We had a GREAT time!! One of the girls there was a good friend of Andrea's from high school, but they hadn't seen each other for 7 years. She drove from Columbus to party with us!! How cool is that!!

We went to PF Chang's for dinner. It's one of Andrea's favorite places and after Saturday night's food I can see why... it was excellent!! We then went back to the hotel room for games and gifts. After that it was out on the town. We went to a VERY cool piano bar... a lot like Rum Runners, but bigger and more fun. Then it was time to dance so we went to a club pretty close to our hotel to "shake a leg." While it was a long night.... we didn't go to bed until way past 4:00 am, it was a very fun one.

Eli got to stay the night at Grandma's. It was the first time he spent the night somewhere with out me. He did GREAT!!! And I didn't do to bad either... only thought about him a few times and smiled (no tears) But boy oh boy, did I race home Sunday morning to see him. We were BOTH pretty excited to see each other. He had lots of fun with Grandma and Paw Paw... they sent me a pix message to tell me they were all doing fine. They were ready to keep him again.... don't know if I am though... :) :)

Aunt Andrea's Visit

Yesterday, Andrea came to visit us.... really I asked her to come bring my dress for the wedding and help me find an outfit for her bachelorette party. :) Plus, she's always up for seeing Eli.

The good news is the dress is not only not too tight, but even too big. The bad news is neither of us found one thing to wear on Saturday. Then Eli and I took her to my favorite girls night treat spot... DeBrands (especially since we both fit in our dresses... we had to celebrate)

We had a good time shopping, at dinner and of course at dessert!! I'm so happy her and Andy found each other and are getting married. They are a GREAT fit and we are so happy to have her in the family!!

Beginning of the end... of summer

Well, this week is the beginning of the end... of summer. I started teaching summer school and Nico started 2-a-day football practice. This signals the END of summer!!
I'm teaching summer school all this week from 8-12, which really is a good thing. It gets me back in the "swing" of teaching, but even more, it helps me start to plan our morning routine when school really hits. One of the great things about the mornings though is how happy Eli is. He's just such a morning person... like his dad...and it kills me... :) He's just all smiles when he wakes up.

This week he's staying with my sister-in-law Amanda, which I'm so thankful for. Eli, her, and Keenan are having a good time while I'm at school... so that makes me feel better about leaving him!! Whenever I go to pick him up, Keenan wants him to stay longer to play (especially on the new trampoline he got for his birthday. He knows that Eli loves to be on it. We played on it at Keenan's birthday party.)

Nico's getting to see him too, even with the hectic football schedule. He usually sees him right before he leaves for his morning practice and then in the afternoon. He feeds him lunch and then they have some Daddy/Eli play time before Eli's afternoon nap. Then Nico's normally gone close to the time he gets up from the nap through bed time. The good news is that once season starts, he'll be home to play with him some and put him to bed.

Last weekend, we met up with the Hunsche's for play time with the kiddos and dinner & a movie. We all had a good time. The best part was watching Eli and Molly interact. For the most part they did well together... Eli did try and rip off her PJ's while taking a picture (which I definitely stepped in and told Eli "We DO NOT rip off girls clothes" And Molly got a good handful of Eli's cheeks and poked him in the head... we think to see if he was real. But all in all, it was a good time. The kids even went to bed pretty decently, so we could watch a movie.

Then, Saturday night was Keenan's 3rd birthday party. We all had a good time there.

As mention above, he got a trampoline, so that was the hit of the night. Keenan LOVES his cousin Eli and want to be as close to his as possible, most of the time. So it's always a fun time for those 2 to get together!!

Well off to bed... another change... I can't stay up nearly as late now, knowing I've got to get up and get going (I'm still getting up close to the same time, but now I actually have to get both of us ready... that still takes some getting used to.... we'll keep working on it.

Run for Henry

A former student of mine, Henry Galliher, was badly injured in a car accident back in May. His chances of survival were not good, but with lots of prayer, determination, and great doctors he's now on the long road to recovery. The hospital bills, rehab, and lots of other expenses have been a large strain on his family, so some friends of Henry organized a 5 K run/walk to raise money. For an article with more about Henry visit this link: http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/SE/20070727/NEWS/707270314&SearchID=73288579243942

So this morning Nico, Eli, and I along with almost 600 other people from our community (including my mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew) came out to the "Run for Henry" When we got there, the registration line twisted and turned for almost 1/4 of a mile. They ran out of forms and were just having people sign in on notebook paper and give their donations in bags. What a GREAT problem to have!!!

It was PHENOMENAL!!! To see so many people all out there for this one very special kid was so cool to see. One of the greatest parts was that I'd say 80% or so of the people out there weren't runners by any means, they were just there to simply come out to walk it and support this family.
Henry rode along in the "gator" with his sister while his parents ran with the rest of the crowd. Before we ran, a man said a prayer which focused on how GREAT God is and the good things he's doing in Henry's life and how Henry's life has been such and example to so many others about the love of God. It was awesome!!

While we didn't run the course (Kenny did though... just barely surviving it:) we did walk it. Eli was up for about 1/2 of the walk, but got tired and had to rest up for the door prize and award ceremony. (in which we won movie tickets... how great is that!!)

The under 14 male winner was a kid I had in school last year, James Martin. He is an OUTSTANDING runner!! He gave Eli his medal. We took a picture with him. We're going to save it so that one day when James is an Olympian, we can bust it out and say we know a Olympic athlete.

After is was all over, we talked with some of the people who helped organized it. They were hoping for 300 people and they estimated they had anywhere from 600-700 people there. Plus the latest update I heard was that they raised about $50,000. It was an event in which I wish would never have had to happen, but since it did, one that I'm glad Eli was a part of and will FOR SURE tell him all about it when he grows up. Our God is an AWESOME GOD!!!

Toledo Zoo

Today Holly, Kaley, Eli, and I went to visit Jamie and Ella and her friend Bethany and her little boy Nate. 3 kids under the age of 13 months and a spit-fire 3 year old... boy oh boy!! We had a GREAT time.

We first went to lunch... quite an experience!! We decided Nate was the best at lunch. Between Eli screaming, Ella not eating, and Kaley having to eat her entire lunch on Holly's lap, Nate who just ate his lunch in peace, won!!

Then it was off to the Toledo Zoo. Holly and I used our Fort Wayne zoo membership and got in for free. It was awesome!!! At this point we lost Ella and Nate to some major napping, but they traveled well. Kaley and Eli saw the polar bears and got some good pictures together.

Ella and Nate woke up for us all to ride the carousel and tour the rest of the zoo. We saw lots of animals different animals from what they have at our zoo.

Probably the best (OK, maybe not best, but best story) was the hippo. The hippo was in a tank and the kids could get right up to the glass and the hippo would float by so they could see it up close. Which is most cases would be great, unless the hippo as he's swimming by, poops!! Which is EXACTLY what happen!! A huge "hippo turd" came out and floated in the water while another one was stuck in his bootie. All the kids were screaming and the parents were laughing. It was hilarious!!! (I know you are wondering if I took a picture... your safe, no picture!! :)

Like at our zoo, Eli did his typical people watching. The good news here was that Ella was the same way... both of them could have cared less about the animals and just watched the people all day!!

After the zoo and all that walking to had to treat ourselves to some ice cream. I think the kids ate just as much ice cream as the adults. We then packed up for the trip home, with 2 very tired kiddos. For the most part Eli did well, just a few tired/hungry cries as we got close to home. Kaley didn't do bad herself considering she had to hang out with babies all day and had no nap at all. She did get to brush the goats... and did a very find job indeed!!

Holly and I were VERY glad we went to visit. Jamie always comes to Fort Wayne, so it was our time to visit her... and it was well worth it.

People Watcher

Not too much excitement today... just cleaning the house. We did go to Turkey Lake Tavern for fish tonight with PawPaw and Grandma. It's a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant we found forever ago. It's got the BEST fish. We try and go there a few time a summer. We hadn't made it up there this summer and since summer pretty much ends next week for us, we thought we'd better go before it got crazy. Eli slept the whole way up and was pretty good during dinner. The most hilarious part of dinner was watching Eli watch the people. He's SUCH a people watcher, just like his mom. Even with a spoon full of food he turned left and right to watch the people, completely ignoring the food. Eventually we got him fed!!


He did this LOTS at the zoo too. He was almost more entertained by the people at the zoo rather than the animals. No big pictures today, so I thought I'd share some more zoo pictures. (Notice his socks pulled up HIGH... guess who did that!! :) Enjoy!!

7 Months Old Today!!!

I can't believe that Eli's 7 months old today!! It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby.

Now look at him... such a big boy!! He's eating baby food, rolling over, getting up on his hand and knees, has 4 teeth, and it babbling up a storm.

We went to the zoo today as a family. Each time we go Eli stays awake longer and longer. Today, he was awake for the whole visit. :) We always start with Monkey Island. Eli likes to watch the monkey's play around. One of our favorite part is the Rain Forest. We saw the Orangutans.

We also rode on the carousel... which he loves.

We had a VERY good time... it was nice to spend some time as a family before next week when start to get back into the school grind. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Eli and Nico from today...

7 months have gone by so quickly. Before Eli was born, people kept telling me how fast it would go... now I believe them. Soon he'll be walking and talking... watch out!! Boy that will be fun!!!

Peas...YUCK!!

Today we tried out some new veggies... peas. Eli's been pretty good about liking most foods we've been feeding him. He's a big fan of squash and carrots. He'd MUCH rather have vegetables than fruit (what's wrong with this kid???) He's really into the yellow and orange ones, but we had some peas in the cabinet, so I thought we'd try them... BAD IDEA!!!! He spit them out and had the funniest face imaginable. Now let me give you some back ground... spitting them out wasn't the way we knew he didn't like them. Lately he's been spitting EVERYTHING out. He thinks it's hilarious!! So did mom and dad until he did it at every meal, now it's just annoying. But the look on his face after he finally tasted them was priceless. I tried to run and get my camera, but it was too late. This picture is the second bite of them... I was hoping we'd get another face, but he just laughed at us while he spit them all over himself, the bib, the high chair, and Nico. I have to admit.... I laughed too!!

The Beginning...

Hi everyone... Welcome to the first posting on "Eli's Life Beyond Friday Photos"

Eli's Friday Photos have gotten to include so many "firsts" that they are getting HUGE. So, Betsy, my friend from High School, and Bobbi, my brother-in-law and sister-in-laws wedding photographer, told me about blogging and how it would be perfect.... here we are!! I can't guarantee that there will be daily posting, but I'll at least try and get something up every few days. Once school starts... who knows. :)

Here's a picture from Friday that didn't make it into the e-mail... He's saying "Come join me on Mommy's new blog!!"