Memorial Day

Ben and Trenton went with Ben's dad and brother up to Lake Erie to go Walleye fishing overnight last night. Trenton called about 10:30 pm last evening and said they were just coming off the water and had about 9 nice sized walleyes so far. Ben took our tent and decided to stay overnight so he could catch the limit on walleyes twice (yesterday and today). Trenton sent me this picture of one they caught.

Gabi, Tyler and I stayed here. Tyler has plans to go the beach with his gf Abby for the day today but they stayed long enough this morning to enjoy the Mishawaka Parade...a favorite tradition for our family. Looking forward to one more day of relaxation before back to work.

Presley

This little cutie pie is 4 years old now!!! What a sweetie. I just love how she gives hugs and kisses everytime she sees me and how she takes care of her little sisters. Happy Birthday to you little Presley Poo! We love you lots!

2009 Midwest Grand Challenge Duals

Talk about a battle...wow, this tournament was staCKED with all kinds of competition. Mishawaka took two teams (white and maroon) to this competition at Michigan State University (we will also be going to the St. Ignace Northern Exposure next month). Tyler wrestled with the maroon team. This was his first time back since removal of his hardware and meniscus surgery. In fact, he was just cleared on Monday to actually start wrestling again. Needless to say, by the end of the day he was extremely tired and very sore. The teams we faced were full of state placers and champions mixed in. They were "all star" teams. Our team consisted of just our wrestling team. Considering this, we did well placing 6th out of 15 teams. Tyler's went 1-4 (and forfeited one round because his knee was bothering him). Scores...against Trojan WC Illinois 1-5, against Jersey Triumph - who placed 2nd overall 2-4, Tyler pinned his kid from Salem WC Michigan, lost to Hartland WC Michigan 5-9 and lost his final match against the Michigan Elite Seniors by fall. We were just excited to see him back on the mat and facing some great competition. A good start to the off season training. Michigan Grappler also covered the event for more info and I have been trying to keep the wrestling website updated as well -Check it out.

College Signing

In the local newspaper today:

COLLEGE WRESTLING
Cavemen grapplers sign
Mishawaka wrestlers Dustin Boyd and Trent Reinoehl have signed letters of intent to wrestle at the collegiate level.
Boyd will wrestle at Calumet College and Reinoehl will attend North Central College.
Boyd, wrestling at 185 pounds, was 31-8 and a member of the All-NIC First Team.
Reinoehl placed seventh at state at 135. He finished 14-3, and was the sectional and regional champion.

Mishawaka Bus Tour

Got to go on a "Mishawaka Bus Tour" with Gabi's 3rd grade class today and it was well worth it! We got it done before the rain hit which was a good thing. Learned some very interesting things...


1. Most of the Mishawaka streets were named by dominant families who basically helped find Mishawaka - Hurd family, Battell family, Eberhart family, Merrifield family and Beiger family. 2. Kate's Garden is the smallest garden in Mishawaka. The statue of two people forming an arch touching hands is to honor our teachers. Passing knowledge from one person to the next.
3. The Furniture store (old Mishawaka High School) is closing but will be renovated into something else to preserve the history.
4. Dodge Manufacturing (where my daddy worked for many, many years) was the second largest employer in Mishawaka. They manufactured the magic jack (to change buggy wheels), also the machinery that moves the bowling ball up to the bowler at the bowling alley AND Gabi thought it was really cool that they manufactured the speed mechanics on roller coasters.
5. The rock wall along Battell Park was part of Works Progress Administration in the 1930's. Our own Mishawaka's stimulus package to get people working during the Depression.

I enjoyed visiting the Shiojiri Gardens. It is said that you lose alot of your stress when coming out from visiting...unfortunately, the garden didn't work it's magic on me.

Anyways, a good time. I actually think this tour should be available to the older kids at school. I learned quite a bit from it (stopped at all the parks) - and had fun too! Found some great photo locations as well :)

Happy Friday everyone!

3:23

That's how fast Gabi ran her 1/2 mile today in gym class!!! They are working on a mini Relay For Life this week and she officially beat the class record putting her in first place!! That means she gets an award on Awards Day! She was soooo proud of her record...that's 11 times around the gym!! Pretty fast for such a little girl!!! ;)

Mother's Day

What an amazing mother I have. I am so thankful for such an inspiration in my life. Such an example for me to follow. If I am half the mom she was and is to me, to my children, I know that they can never steer wrong. That's why I strive to be like her. She is not only a beautiful person on the outside but on the inside. My mom is always thinking of others before herself. She is a giver all the time. That is why I thoroughly enjoy putting together all her flowers for her. I think this is the third year now that I have done them for Mother's Day. She loves the way I do them and she is always so proud. I love you mom! Thank you for making me want to be a better mother every day. Thank you for being my best friend. Happy Mother's Day!

I woke up to a few cards on the table...one from the kids, one from my hubby, one from Gabi herself and one from Trenton's girlfriend, Alayna (so sweet of her). My baby girl presented me with origami flowers she had made at school, along with a piece of artwork to display. Both beautiful! The boys, Gabi and Ben presented me with a gift card to JaRoss Salon to get that massage I have been longing for. I am soooo looking forward to that! And lastly, Trenton presented me with a shirt he brought back from North Central (he visited on Friday/Saturday) that says "North Central College Mom" :) Still can't believe it. Listened to a good sermon this morning...made me cry. Title..."How to Raise A Healthy Family." Cried when he started talking about children leaving the nest...I am about to take that road and my heart aches when I think about it. Scared to venture down it, but mostly sad. Then I cried when pastor spoke about those who have lost their children and thought of my parents. And cried when he spoke about those who have lost their mothers, like my husband. My heart ached as I thought of how he isn't able to give her the hugs I gave my mom today. I know she is with us though...in spirit...always.

Had a great day of visiting with my mom's side of the family...lots of food as always and was able to see my grandparents finally home from Florida again. Had fun watching grandma, Gabi and Tyler do a Beauticontrol spa makeover. Lots of laughs. Glad we visited with dad R and Dave and that we were also able to visit Mom R's gravesite today. Good day. Happy Mother's Day!

Eight Eggs

While mowing on Tuesday evening Ben found an egg in the yard...a rather larger egg and called Gabi over to take a look. Gabi and her friend suggested finding a safe place to put it and while looking behind a bush beside the house, found a nest full of the same eggs! Ben instructed Gabi to put on gloves and carefully place the egg back into the nest. She did so, and with extreme caution ;) and with excitement, she ran in to tell me what they had found...a nest of duck eggs! While showing it off, the mama and daddy duck flew over head to the next door neighbor's roof to watch intently. We decided to leave and head in for the night hoping the mama would come back to sit on the nest. She did...we checked and she had come back. We are very excited to see the new little ducklings. I read up on them and it says 28 days. Not knowing how long they have been there, we will keep checking every now and then. Gabi counted 8 eggs.
Should get interesting with the big black creature who lives with us...haha. We will keep her at bay as much as possible though. How fun!

Ben

Happy Birthday to the best dad in the world. To my best friend and husband who I love more every day! To a man who loves his children, who would do just about anything for any one of them. Looking forward to having a nice homemade dinner tonight topped off with cake and ice cream! We love you lots!!!

Freestyle State Champion

Went to Freestyle State this weekend and brought home a state champion!!!! That's right. Trenton is officially the 152 lb. freestyle state champion this year!! Went to Indy last night hoping to try out Buca di Beppo BUT there was a two hour wait. Settled for Noble Roman's Pizza instead. Went back to hotel and swam a little bit before crashing out. Juniors wrestled today and we were a little nervous when Trenton lost his first match basically by 1 point. He started vomiting immediately after. Well, Thursday Gabi stayed home because she was sick..headache and upset tummy and Friday, both Ben and I were sick. Ben actually vomited. We figured Trenton probably was coming down with something. He immediately headed for our area we were sitting in and layed down. Running a fever and looking miserable we had him take some aspirin and lay down. Trenton didn't want to continue but we told him to lay down and see how he was feeling when he was up next. He decided to go for it and won, despite vomiting in between periods. He looked terrible and I felt awful for him. Trenton would dry heave between periods in the next two matches but won them all! The first kid who beat Trenton (Caleb Smith) ended up getting beat, so it put Trenton in the running for first again. Come to the end, Smith got beat twice and was put out of the running all together for first.

Trenton wrestled Andrew Smith of Ossian (6-0, 6-0), Blake Wood of Indy (0-7, 1-0, 1-0), Kirk Johnson of Indy (8-2, 5-1), Brannigan Barlow of Bloomington (7-0, 5-0) and Nick Odem of Indy for the final match (6-1, 6-0). He did awesome for being sick. We were soooo proud. Finally, after 6 years of ISWA events, we got a state champ! Trenton was so excited. This enables him the opportunity to go to a couple of National events...Fargo (individually) and/or Oklahoma City (team duals). Trenton actually went to Fargo the year before last with the freestyle and greco team and to Oklahoma City last year for freestyle. Both great opportunities! I just can't believe this was Trenton's last year as a junior...not sure if he will enter any tourneys as university, etc. He is crazy like that, so he may :)

But wow, what a wild ride this has been! Thank you, Trenton...for the memories! We love you, son and we know you can accomplish anything you put your mind to! We are so proud of you today and forever. Great way to end your high school ISWA tourneys...FREESTYLE STATE CHAMP!

College Choice

After a last minute opportunity to look at another college because an old coach is starting up a wrestling program there, Trenton put his college decision on hold. We went and looked at the college and listened. Gave Coach Vega a chance to sell the school. We absolute love that man...he is a great coach and had no doubts he would do Trenton well. Unfortunately, wrestling put aside, Calumet just didn't fit for him.

SOOOO, drumroll, please.....Trenton will be a Cardinal in the Fall! I think he made a wise choice and we wish him all the best. I am looking forward to this next chapter...Lord help me.

Niece Reese :)

Happy 1st Birthday to this little cutie pie!! She is sooo happy ALL the time. She is a mover and a shaker too...always investigating. Got to celebrate this past weekend with the family. We love you little Reesey!

Tried

We had a guest over at our house last weekend. His name is Cashew and he is a white hamster and belongs to the same lovely lady who gave us Bubbles. Rachel was okay with helping us out in our endeavor to try and allow Bubbles to have babies. I have to say, the endeavor was not pretty. In fact, Bubbles didn't want anything to do with Cashew. She was in fact, pretty mean to the poor fella. Instead of risking Cashew's life, we gave up and sent Cashew back home. We may try again some other time, but for now we have to be happy with Bubbles. She is such a sweet hamster. I remember when I was young-we had the opportunity to have baby hamsters and guinea pigs. It was a cool experience and I thought it would be neat for Gabi to see as well. Oh well, she is happy with just having Bubbles for now.

Prom 2009

This year's Prom was held at the Mishawaka FOP. Trenton and Tyler both went. Trenton with his girlfriend, Alayna and Tyler with his girlfriend, Abby. Both beautiful, sweet girls. Although they both were going they had different plans. Trenton's plan was to meet up with his buddy, Dustin and his date, Kelsey. Their dinner plans were at Lunkers!!! Afterwards the dance and after dance plans at Kelsey's house for a couple of hours. Tyler's plans were to meet up at Abby's with their big group, take the limo to Beutter Park for pictures and go to Carraba's for dinner. Of course, after dinner, the dance and after dance plans at Abby's house for a couple of hours. I was very disappointed with my camera . . . not sure if a button or setting was off or if it was just the lighting. It seemed to be taking great pics at Alayna's house but once we got to Abby's the camera just didn't want to take good pictures. I have to apologize, especially to Tyler and Abby for not getting very good pictures :( My favorites are posted below and you can see all of them here.

"Bucket Handle"

Tyler is now home and recovering from his arthroscopy today. Our decision to do it was exactly that...it was more exploratory because the MRI basically just showed a bone bruise and some signal indicating some trauma. Tyler's symptoms were not too severe to where he couldn't walk, etc. and it was pretty much a "take your chances" kind of surgery. Dr. may have gone in and found nothing. Well, come to find out, we are glad we decided to do the surgery. Doc Graham found a Bucket Handle Mensical tear that he had to repair. He came out after surgery and described the damage as a "very very bad tear." He said that Tyler must have twisted his knee and slammed it to cause some of his cartilage to shatter and actually float around his knee area. Doc Graham was very surprised at what he actually found after looking at the MRI and knowing Tyler's symptoms. Good news...Dr. Graham cleaned it up. He repaired the meniscus the best he could. Bad news...Dr. Graham had to take most of his cartilage out. Tyler will have immediate short term results. Long term he said Tyler will probably have problems and pain when he gets to be 40 or 50 years old. For now Tyler is relaxing with his Game Ready equipment that was prescribed and still plans on going to Prom on Saturday :) Please continue to pray for a speedy and easy recovery for him.

Meniscus X-Ray

We have scheduled surgery for Tyler on Thursday morning. Dr. looked at his x-rays and MRI to conclude that he really didn't have a conclusion. His MRI showed high signal...and if you are as smart as me when it comes to that stuff, you can read this to understand "signal" more. It didn't show a tear on the outside but Dr. said there very well could be a tear inside. He also said that Tyler showed a bone bruise so some of his pain could be coming from that. We had two options...wait a few weeks to see if symptoms subside or go ahead with an arthroscopy to see if there is a tear inside the meniscus. If he found a tear, he could fix it then and there. After weighing those options we decided 1. If we put it off, it is just delaying the inevitable considering he has been in pain since February, 2. It would only push our recovery time back even more into football and other wrestling opportunities this summer. Unfortunately, Tyler is going to Prom on Saturday - this could pose a problem, but considering he has a few more years to enjoy Prom to its fullest, we decided asap was the best way to go. Please say a prayer for Tyler on Thursday.

MRI and Dad Reinoehl

Spent most of the day with doctors....

Doc Graham with the hunch Tyler has a torn ligament in his knee...

Open and Wide MRI getting pictures taken...actually spent three hours there. They were a bit behind (to say the least). I am whooped. Should know Monday if Tyler will need surgery. Prayers please!!!

Gabi is at an overnight...gets to go see The Hannah Montana Movie while the boys are with their respective girlfriends for the evening. Ben and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at Cracker Barrel. Now home for some R & R. Beautiful day. Happy Birthday to my father in law. He sounded very tired tonight on the phone. Has been doing some landscaping. I am sure he is looking forward to fishing tomorrow with Ben...should be another nice day.

What's in store for this young man????

The Time Is Near

When I am not working in my office I have been busy with other things...namely someone's graduation coming up! Oh wow...I still can't believe it is coming up sooo fast! Still no final decision on college...North Central still at top of the list though...Trenton really wants to wrestle in college and we think this would be a good fit. We have some other options we are exploring so we haven't solidified anything just yet.

Happy Easter!

Gabi was excited that the Easter Bunny brought her some goodies in her Easter basket...a mermaid doll to play in the pool/bath, a gift card to Borders, a tiny stuffed elephant and plenty of chocolate candy. The boys even got a basket. Their eggs contained money...their favorite gift now a days along with their favorite candy...Reese eggs for Tyler and caramel cadbury eggs for Trenton. We attended church for a very good message..."From Empty to Full" and then had a yummy feast at my parents' house very similar to Thanksgiving this year! Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn, biscuits, peach and strawberry pies. It was so good! The Easter bunny always leaves goodies there also where Gabi got a Jasmine Barbie and the boys got, yes, you guess it, more money.
The kids (Gabi, Presley and Addy) enjoyed an egg hunt outside. It was a beautiful day to do so! After cleaning up and eating some pie we headed to grandpas, where the kids LOVE to hunt for their baskets. He even gets the adults in on the action also. I am always the worst one at finding mine and am usually the last to find it. This year he made Ben's the hardest to find and I was loving every minute of it!! HEE HEE! We all enjoyed the evening at home but the boys headed off to see their girlfriends for the evening. They (Abby and Alayna) just got back from Spring Break in Florida...the boys were anxious to spend some time with them. Good weekend, good Easter. He is Risen!!! Thank you God for all you have done for us and for our family.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Break From Spring Break

Is there such a thing??? We didn't have anything planned so this week has been moving quite slowly...especially with "bored" kids. Luckily, Trenton has a roof to do the next couple of days so he will be busy there and Ben has some work for Tyler at his work. Unfortunately, Gabi has had to "hang out" with her friends earlier this week because alot of them have family coming from out of town or are going away for Easter. I have been able to get quite a bit finished as far as getting things organized for Trenton's graduation party...which is going to be the end of May. I have gotten all our invites stuffed with his senior pictures, printed his party invitations (have to stuff those), started going through his sporting pictures for the party and collected all our printed photos to be used for display for the party. Shew! Alot going on for me! I plan to do some spring cleaning next week when the kids are gone again. Today I took the kids for lunch at Taco Bell and went on a short walk at Battell Park. Got some nice photos of all three of the kids together.

Productive Weekend

We got alot done this weekend...in fact, it was very productive. Ben and the boys went fishing on Saturday morning but caught nothing but grass pike. Must have been too cold...Ben blames it on the cold front coming through. They were home by 3 pm and we got on the yard as a family. Tyler power raked while Trenton and I raked the yard by hand to get piles of dead grass. Ben worked on pulling out 2 large bushes that basically swallowed our front sidewalk to our front door. He also trimmed up many bushes and helped everyone else out where he could. 12 bags of dead grass and trimmings later and exactly 3 hours later, we finished. Sore and tired, we ordered a couple of pizzas from Papa Johns and relaxed all evening (the boys watched some basketball). I must say the yard looks better and the front of our house...wow, opens it up alot with the bushes gone. We enjoyed Sunday church by watching Presley sing for Palm Sunday and grabbed Slumdog Millionaire to watch. Trenton and his girlfriend, Alayna, saw the movie a few weeks ago and came back with rave reviews. I must say, I was impressed. Good movie. I can see why it received many awards. Sad, because if it hadn't have received the awards, I wouldn't have known anything about it. Anyways, if you haven't seen the movie...worth watching. So, now the rain has arrived...snow to come. Not excited about that one.

Cardinal

Gabi was soooo excited to go to school this morning. She was actually looking forward to doing her first oral presentation on Cardinals. She got 100% and did an excellent job! She was so proud!!!
In other news...LOVED LOVED LOVED the series finale of ER last night. Made me cry...touched on death, new life, and teen drinking. Did a great job with most of the original cast members. I haven't watched the show since a couple of years ago and the magic was still there! Loved it.
Also trying out this twitter craze. Saw it on the today show...Kathy Lee Gifford was talking about it so I thought I would see what it is all about. Definitely for texting fanatics but could be fun...I can see where it could get annoying though. Anyways, check it out.
Definitely ready for the weekend...not much planned for Spring Break and not looking forward to the cold weather.

April Fools!

This little stinker has been waiting for this day all week...she had her joke all planned out and it worked on Tyler this morning! She begged me to have cereal in the morning on April Fool's Day with the boys. She took the plastic bags out of the boxes and switched them all around. Sure enough...Tyler poured fruit loops when he thought he was pouring cocoa puffs. Lots of giggles!!! April Fools!!!