Odds and Ends Again

I am hoping that Jay and Sofie will post about their interesting weeks, so will decline to narrate about their adventures.

Luke went with Jay on a trip to Detroit.  This is where Jay will elaborate...(right?)

Luke and I stopped at TONY PACKO'S in Toledo, which is one of my favorite road-trip eateries.   Luke had a couple hot dogs and chili and I had Chicken Paprikas.  Very tasty.  The next day we started a new contract at the Ford Stamping Plant in Woodhaven, Michigan, just a few miles south of Detroit.  Luke had floated the idea of eating dinner in Canada, so we packed our passports.  That evening, we drove to Windsor, Canada for dinner.  As we approached the exit for the bridge to Canada we noticed that the right lane was backed up over a mile with mostly trucks, completely stopped.  The other 3 lanes were moving at 70 mph.  I quickly slowed down and pulled in at the end of the line, nervously glancing in my rearview mirror and hoping the vehicles behind me would also stop!  I was relieved when several other vehicles and a truck were stopped in the line behind me after a few minutes.  Then we heard a tremendous crash behind us and I saw that the truck had been struck from behind, and debris was flying out of the trailer on both sides and spreading all over the road.  There was no warning, no screeching of brakes, and it appeared that the truck was rear-ended by someone going 70 mph!  Another truck stopped, and I saw the driver get out with a fire extinguisher and start spraying the back of the truck.  About a minute later the emergency vehicles started arriving and all of the northbound I-75 lanes were closed.

It took quite a while, but we finally made it over the bridge and into Windsor for dinner.  Luke had found a wood-fired pizza place on-line, and on the drive there we went through quite the potpourri of ethnic neighborhoods.  We saw a Chaldean Christian church (Iraqi?), Vietnamese businesses, some African establishments and many African-Canadians.  There were a few others as well, it was much more cosmopolitan than I had envisioned.  On our way back we saw that the truck was still there and the northbound lanes of I-75 were still closed.  The next day we were back at the plant and heard from some of the workers there that a 25-yr-old man and his son had been killed in the crash, and that the dad was a drunk driver.  How sad.

Detroit News story on the accident

We finished recording vibration data from many stamping presses, probably more than 40.  The measurement locations were the drive motor bearings, the dynamatic clutch, the brake, the pinion (small gear) bearing, and split-shaft bearings (larger gears).  We also acquired vibration data from some compressors and pumps in the powerhouse.  The job went pretty well for the first time out there, and took about as long as I expected, which was a relief.  It was good to have Luke helping me.
 
Luke and Jackson also went on a trip over the weekend as they helped plan the year ahead for the middle school youth group.

Sofie had an eventful birthday week.  Here is where she will elaborate in her inimitable style..

Bridget and I went to a meeting about The Well, a ministry in Thailand for women in slave traffic.  We drove out to Aurora to a studio tucked away in an alley.  We were very impressed with the Godly passion expressed by the couple that heads the ministry.  Bridget has had many opportunities lately to practice her highway driving and I have had practice clutching the door handle and pressing my feet into the floorboard.  She is doing a great job driving; it's all me and my control issues.  This week as she drove home in the right lane of traffic we came upon debris scattered across the road.  She calmly maneuvered onto the right shoulder while I prayed loudly and fervently!  No problem.

Jackson went to his first day of school...ever...a week ago.  He is taking Calculus I.  Though he is the youngest student, he is at the head of his class.  His teacher subtly suggested that he was cheating. It seems that she now believes that he is doing his own work; says that homeschoolers are her best students. 

Emma is in Minnesota this week with Jane Larson; they are mother's helpers for her 5 young cousins.  The girls and I went with her to the airport yesterday.  The authorities were not thrilled that Emma was accompanied by so many loved ones :) but they reluctantly let us all through security.  Emma has never flown on an airplane and the girls had never been on an airport concourse.  They ran from window to window trying to watch the planes taking-off.  This was also Emma's birthweek.  She took along her birthday gift camera.

Annaliese and I went shopping for shoes this week.  She bought teal-colored Converse tennies with her own money.  And I bought church sandals, on sale, after Annaliese said they were me.

Here is an excerpt from the Gallahast Times:
     This week will be the last week of Linnea's presidency.  Last night in city hall Annaliese and Grace gave their speeches passionately trying to persuade citizens to vote for them.  Though the speeches were surprisingly similar, they were also motivation.  It was a close call, but Annaliese won by two votes.  Jane and Emily cast their votes by e-mail, but Reeses was unable to vote.  Linnea acted almost relieved to step down as president and resume a quiet life, perhaps as banker or city improver.
     To celebrate the election of the new president, a performance was held in Gallahana by the GAL group.  They started the show by singing a calm song "Part of Your World", after which they ripped off their dresses revealing leotards, and started a gymnast performance.  After much practice their show was near perfect and a success.  The surprised audience was delighted at the impressive acrobatics shown by the GAL group.  If the GAL group performs again, I'll be there to watch it.

Sonja began piano lessons last night.  Melissa Kelsey will be giving lessons at our house.  The girls thought she was pretty and nice; Sonja is "motivated" to learn to play like the pros.  She is very excited. 

Linnea modeling Ugandan necklace

Sonja and Ruthie enjoying Italian ice at Gina's after a family game of softball

Sonja wearing her softball attire...the ubiquitous boots.  We join the Crimingers, Quandts and various others for Sunday evening ball playing.

The girls rigged up the broken basketball hoop from our back porch.

The Crimingers, Quandts and us at Montrose Beach this week.

Sonja's imitation of George Washington (?)

Bike-safety conscious Cabbage Patch dolls

Emma's birthday breakfast in bed:  Dad's famous raspberry chocolate chip pancakes and strawberries

Art Gallery

These are Sculpey creations by the Miller girls: Snowman by Sonja, croquet set by Linnea and Annaliese, the smiley face, pumpkin and flower by Emma.

We will be studying the impressionists this year in school.  Here we sorted through our crayon box, then melted the small, broken bits.  The girls "painted" still-lifes with the Q-tips dipped in liquid crayon. 

Logan leaving

On Saturday Logan my brother had to go back to school so me and dad drove to Champaign where his school is.  He and three friends recently rented an apartment.  I thought it was a little small . Logan's room was barely bigger than our bathroom. He brought cool soaps that had little beads in them. when we got there he needed a few things such as: a lamp, a garbage can, a chair, and a pitcher for water.After that we got invited to I-Life, his church group.  It was a barbecue at someone's house.  I enjoyed the swing set and the basketball hoop.  I played with a girl named Ella.  She was two.  It was funny, when she would swing she'd say, "Up high in the sky!" and she'd say to me, "Hey, you in the clouds!"  I loved to jump off the swing.  I got to meet Logan's friends.  They were nice.  When it was time to say good-bye to Logan he said, "It's easier saying good-bye to you than mom because you don't cry." Logan and Carly came out to the car to say good-bye.  On the way home Dad and I played the word game that Emma made up.  You say a compound word like paper boy, then the next person might say paper clip and then the next person might say hair clip.  We played for like an hour. 

 
 By Annaliese

Surprise parties

This week we've had two surprise parties, and both for people who had their birthday two or three months ago. The first party was for Jackson, whose birthday was May 1st. He talked about having a party but did nothing about it, so Mom and Bridget took action. They told Logan to ask Jackson if he wanted to go bowling Thursday night before Logan went back to college. The plan was for Jackson, Logan, Bridget and Dad to show up at the bowling ally around 7:00, and have Jackson's friends waiting there to surprise him. When me, Mom, the twins and Sonja came at 6:45, the place smelled faintly of smoke and was swarmed with people 3 feet taller than me. Logan called saying he left food in the crock pot, which was code for "We're almost there." We hid behind bowling ball racks and had Nick stand near the door to signal us when they came in.

When they walked in we jumped up shouting  "Surprise!", only to have Jackson think it was a going-away party for Logan. Well at least he was surprised. The little girls and I went home after that to tidy up the house. When everybody came back to our house they seemed to eat anything and everything. They devoured the melting ice cream cake, cupcakes, popcorn and pizza, while I had a bowl of ice cream in the other room. I went to bed shortly after that, but judging by how tired Jackson was the next day, I'd say he had a good time.

The other surprise party was for both Annie and Michaela. It was a surprise tea party at Mary's house, and Annie and Michaela were told that it was just a tea party, not for their birthdays. and they didn't suspect a thing, seeing as there birthdays were in May and June. Although one difficulty about having a surprise party for two people is the element of surprise, since they wouldn't be showing up together. So Mary cleverly devised the plan of playing hide and seek. Annie and Michaela would be the seekers and we would hide inside, so when they walked in we would pop up from our hiding spots with party hats and kazoos, then start singing Happy Birthday. The next thing to figure out was how to keep one of them from going inside to use the bathroom before the other one showed up. We made all sorts of crazy plans about telling them that Mary didn't have any running water so they used their neighbors bathroom, but they were gone they would have to just wait, and that she was using bottled water for our tea. But thankfully when Michaela arrived, she didn't need to use the bathroom. Annie was half an hour late, but when she came Mary promptly told her that because she and Michaela were the last ones to arrive, they had to be the seekers. ( Me, Emily, Lydia, and Sofia purposely came half an hour early.) When we surprised them they were adorned with party hats, doll sized straw hats and birthday girl crowns, all of  which Annie delicately balanced on her head. We all merrily drank Irish breakfast tea and ate an assortment of little sandwiches and "Bulgarian soggy cucumbers" which were hard to eat when pretending to be a proper young lady. Annie got an ginormous owl mug, and Michaela a winking smiley face. For dessert we had a little platter of chocolates and Mary's butter cream cup cakes which were rumored to have cheese in them. Sofia and Mary blew on their kazoos until they drove everyone crazy, while Annie and I made yo-yo like things with our party hats. In the end when Mrs. Friederich picked Emily and I up, I was reluctant to leave. I'd have to say that was the best surprise tea party I've ever been to. 
-Emma Rose

Goats, Dancing, Bowling, Etc.

I will try to catch up on our last few days.  (I have a feeling I will be typing those words often as my opening sentence.)

Luke, five of his sisters, Dad and I went star-gazing with Bill Suriano.  Bill is an amateur astronomer, though his photos of galaxies and nebula look like something out of National Geographic, like the image he took of the "Bubble Nebula", below:
 

He set up a couple of 8-inch telescopes at a park in Riverside.  We were able to view the full moon; in fact it was so bright we had the image etched into our retinas for several minutes afterward. 
Sofie moved into her new studio apartment this weekend.  She also had some good feedback from her boss.  He is concerned that Sofie is feeling stressed out so he offered her a work computer and generous down-time/vacation-time...he says that she is in the top 1% of his employees.  Way to go, Sofie!

                                                  Sofie's Kitchen
Logan and Carly celebrated their 3rd anniversary this week. They celebrated by going bike-riding, watching episodes of Psych, and going out to a sports restaurant where Logan said he ate the best burger he'd ever had....a pig burger? hog burger?...something related to swine, topped with bacon and pulled pork.  Mmmm, meaty.
Bridget was at the Dodgson's house helping Mrs. Dodgson and Rebecca price items for the missions' trip presentation on Friday.  Mrs. D. brought back jewelry and other handmade items from Uganda; all the proceeds will go back to the orphanage there.
Jackson began tutoring a new boy in algebra today.  He also spent a couple of hours playing tennis with Steinie and playing basketball at church.
Emma, Annaliese, Linnea and Sonja went bowling with the Quandts.  They also helped me take care of the three and a half goats and five chickens at the Ioders.  I am getting the hang of milking, actually find it enjoyable, and the girls are great goat-wranglers and hay and water providers.

The goats will eat anything they can get their mouths on, including the little garden placed en route to their day pen. 

I was a bit worried yesterday when we could only locate 4 chickens, especially jittery since the guinea pig fiasco, and therefore overjoyed to count 5 chickens this evening.  Don't know where that last chicken was hiding. On Sunday we took Graqndma Betty to view the goats, then we walked to the community garden and around the neighborhood to admire the stately old Austin homes.

Emma, Linnea, Sonja, Sarah and I went to the resale shop in Cary to buy a tea cup for a surprise tea party/birthday party this week.  The girls had fun looking at the fancy dresses and high heels and we ended up buying Disney Trivial Pursuit, a pair of church shoes for Sonja, and a I Love Mom-type mug for Lisa.  Lisa was up and able to visit with us some, though she is still weak. 
Annaliese, Linnea, Pat Larson and I went English Country Dancing at the 19th Century Women's Club on Monday night. I grew up square dancing.  ECD is the sophisticated cousin of square dancing.  Think Pride and Prejudice.  A and L were the youngest dancers there, though there was a wide age range of dancers. It leaned heavily to the female...I was a male all evening :) Some were beginners, like us, and others were more experienced and were able and willing (mostly) to steer us in the right directions.  The girls loved it!  (And I thought they were quite graceful and were quick learners.)

Odds and ends

My posts are heavy on the activities on my youngest four.  The older five are more independent and therefore I have less interactions with them.  I might try to get them to post occasionally.
 Just a quick update on the olders...
Luke worked with Jay today on a roof somewhere:)  Luke enjoys the variety of place and activity that Jay's job provides.  Luke is looking for full-time employment.
Sofie is moving this weekend from an apartment she shares with a roommate to a studio apartment in a nicer area of D.C.
Logan has been working six days a week for the Oak Park Park District in the Buildings and Grounds department.
Bridget had to say a sad farewell to one of her best friends, Alex, who is leaving today for college in Tennessee.  Fortunately for Bridget many of her good friends will be going to school in the Chicago area.
Jackson is playing tennis with some friends and enjoying this spectacular weather.

Yesterday the younger girls and I went to the Morton Arboretum.  We ate a lunch next to the car...(a lunchmeat sandwich on a thick round of Italian bread, grapes, chips and pumpkin raisin cookies) and then explored the grounds.  There is an exhibit called Unframed there now.  Artists have used trees as the canvas for their art. Some of this art is fascinating, some is peculiar. We brought paper and pencils so we could sit and draw scenery or specimens (only flowers, etc. that were already on the ground). 

Today I stopped by the craft store and bought adult-size t-shirts for the girls.  My idea was to have the girls paint the shirts with glow-in-the-dark fabric paint and create fun night shirts.  I'm hoping Jay can help me load photos of the finished products.

I also have photos of us sitting around our backyard fire pit, getting ready for an overnight in the tent.  (Only the twins made it through the night outside; I woke in the morning to find Sonja and Natalie asleep on the couches.) 

"I hope he's just napping"

We have cared for cats with thyroid problems, blind kitties, neurotic dogs, dogs with separation anxieties, dogs sporting the "cone of shame", goats and chickens (more on that later), house plants, tomato plants, babies, run-of-the-mill children, and a guinea pig, all this summer.  The  g. pig, Pumpkin, was our guest for two weeks.  He learned to enjoy lap time with Sonja and was a cute addition to our menagerie.  
Sunday afternoon Annaliese said, "Mom, Pumpkin isn't moving."  The thought/prayer was, "Oh please, let him be napping."  Unfortunately he was beyond rousing and we knew we were going to have to break the news to his family when they returned from their trip.  We thought the family would return the next day, so I kept him in his cage.  But when most of Monday had passed and his owners had not showed up, I decided to give him a burial.  At that point, if we waited any longer it might have crossed the line from sentimental to disturbing.   I, or more accurately, Jackson, put Pumpkin in a shoe box and buried him in the backyard.  
When the family returned Tuesday afternoon I knew I had to make the dreaded trip across the alley (...thoughts of Lucille Ball-type sitcoms ran through my mind...would they notice a new guinea pig?)  After some initial small-talk, I had to tell the mom the bad news.  She took it well...in fact she laughed.  Then she handed me a nicely illustrated envelope containing our petsitting fee.  There on the paper was a darling drawing of Pumpkin with a word bubble coming from his little g. pig mouth, saying, "Thanks!"  The irony.  When her girls were told of Pumpkin's demise they yelled, "Yay!  Now we can get a turtle!"  (In their defense, the mom had told me ahead of time not to worry if the g. pig died; interest in him had waned.  Poor Pumpkin.)

Have a great day at Great America!

My kids had never been to Great America, at least not with me.  Occasionally one of them will be invited to go with a friend, but the thought of shelling out $60/person has been too much .  (Jackson did go with Nate Hesterman and some other friends last week.)  This year we signed up for the Great America reading program; the reward is a free pass to the park for every participant and their teacher.  The Quandt family and Lizzie Compasio and us all headed to G.A. on Thursday; Nancy agreed to do the spinny rides and I would do the roller coasters.We envisioned that Ruthie and Sonja would stick together on the kiddie rides and the older girls would go on the scary rides.  
By mid-afternoon I had a headache.  Eight girls would surround me, giving me their opinions, simultaneously.  Factions developed.  No matter which ride I decided we should try next, someone was disappointed.  We determined early on that Ruthie was not comfortable on roller coasters or log rides.  Unfortunately for her, Sonja adored them.  While we were on the Whizzer roller coaster Sonja kept laughing and yelling, "This is so fun!  I love this!" That inevitably left Ruthie alone with her mom for portions of the day.  Sigh.  But that is not to say that we did not have fun...we did!  We had a blast getting the bejeebers scared out of us.  And the later on it got, the shorter the lines got, the more rides we squeezed in.  By the end we convinced Ruthie to try the log ride and the Roarin' Rapids ride.  Now we didn't have the sun to dry us off, but we all had the pleasure of enjoying rides together. We stayed until closing time at 10.  We couldn't bring ourselves to buy dinner in the park...$10 for a slice of pizza!...so we swung by McDonalds on the way home...$21 for 10 of us!  It was a fun day and my girls are eager to go again.  Next year I will have a better game plan laid out ahead of time and hopefully no need to pop an Excedrin. :)

August 3, 2011 Life is a Day at the Beach

What is life like in our family of 11?  Will I ever be able to remember all the fun and frustration years from now?  Will my kids?  So, this is our attempt at capturing those memories.

Here it is, already August.  I don't feel like we've had much time just to hang out together.  I decided that today was going to be different.  

The four younger girls and I piled into the van and headed for Calumet Park via Skyway Dogs.  Calumet is the neighborhood closest to the Indiana border and not an area that I have explored before.  Perfect!  I love to be surprised, to investigate new neighborhoods.  Our trip was interrupted when the drawbridge over the Calumet River was raised just as we approached it.  We could see that this process was going to take some time, so we turned off the car and walked to the edge of the road.  We joined two avid bridge watchers, (I guess that's what you'd call them) who were happy to share their knowledge with us.  They explained that the ship being tugged and pushed down the river was a Canadian ship delivering road salt. 
The girls loved eating their Chicago style hot dogs (plus ketchup) at an outdoor picnic table outside of Skyway Dogs.  I got a shaggy dog...dog plus sauerkraut, yum!
The Calumet Beach was nice...not crowded, easy parking, bathrooms.  We jumped in the waves, built sandcastles, and collected rocks for hours.  Emma and Annaliese searched for sea or beach glass.  They found plenty, though it is getting harder to find now that most drinks are packaged in plastic.  They also found a goodly amount of fossil rocks, crinoids.  Linnea and I created a spiral shell- shaped sand fortress.  It took many disasters before we perfected our design.  We were wondering...does Lake Michigan have a tide?  Must look that up.  Sonja enjoyed it all.  
As we were sitting down to supper some kids walked by and admired the treehouse.  They asked if they could just go up into it.  I said "sure" thinking they would climb up, take a look, and be on their way.  They made themselves at home, even sweeping it clean.  Next thing I knew they were using our bathroom and asking to play the Wii.  Apparently they were out selling candy and sunflower seeds to raise money for their church choir to go on tour.  Hmmm.  Bought some of both, gave them cups of water, sprayed them with Off.  They played with our toys and swung on our swings.  The most outspoken boy said he'd never met anyone so nice.  Not sure about that; I'm thinking I'm a bit of a pushover.  Finally had to send the group packing...nicely :)  
I made my special bubble concoction this morning for Sonja.  (The secret ingredient is glycerin which I had to order on the internet.  Used to be able to get it at Walgreens.)  We created bubbles within bubbles and stuck scissors into bubbles without popping them.  Fascinating stuff.
So, my idea is to let the kids each contribute to this on-going blog.  I'd love to hear their impressions of life as a Miller.