Gumballs

It's the middle of March already?! No kidding. Huh. How about that.

We are quickly approaching Drew's fourth birthday. He continues to be the epitome of cuteness. Even his most annoying quirks are adorable...

At our extended Keener family Christmas celebration this year, Ben and Drew each got a plastic gumball machine, each in the shape of a ball - Ben's is in the shape of a football and Drew's is in the shape of a basketball. Of course these machines each came with a small bag of gum balls.

Back up a bit. I grew up in a house where I was allowed to chew gum but ONLY if it was sugar-free. And my mom was quite strict about this, which was part of the reason why I didn't have a single cavity until I was 18 (left to my own devices, I ventured out into the world of gum WITH sugar - gasp - and sure enough, along came the cavities).

So there I was, on Aunt Valerie's family room floor with wrapping paper strewn about and both of my boys exclaiming, "Yesss!! Cool! Gum ball machines!!" Bet you can't guess the next thing out of their mouths..."Can we have one?!" Oh, boy. Knowing full well that my dental hygiene reasoning would not fly with these guys, I agreed. This was my first mistake.

So home we went with not one, but two new gum ball machines. The boys displayed them prominently on what we call the "low counter" in our kitchen - a location within eyesight AND easy reach. Second mistake.

As with any new toy, the gum ball machines were quite popular for several days. I had to become somewhat of an overbearing "let me see how well you brushed your teeth" mother, but they seemed to be enjoying their little bursts of sugar, so I did my best to cope.

My third mistake came when the little sample bags of gum balls ran out. A wise mother would have taken the plastic gum ball machines off the counter, hidden them in some dark corner of the basement or attic and been done with it. But not me. I'm not sure if this makes me an unwise mother, but it certainly doesn't make me the brightest bulb on the tree. At my next trip to Giant, I bought more gum balls. Now come on people, how enabling was this?!?! I just bought MORE of the very thing that made me cringe when my children opened them at Christmas. And I really had no idea what I was in for with Drew.

Drew likes the gum balls. No, no, that's the understatement of the century. The child is OBSESSED with the gum balls. Picture this...it's 7:00 am, everyone has rolled out of bed and is downstairs for the potty & breakfast routine. Typically, we are full of "good morning!" and "did you sleep good?" (Yes, I know it should be 'Did you sleep well?' but somehow I can't bring myself to ask my three-year-old such a grammatically sound, completely un-cute question.) But for Drew it has become this: run downstairs, go potty as quickly as possible and IMMEDIATLY ask "Can I have a gum ball?" This is before any talk of breakfast has commenced. This is usually even before we actually SEE him because he is such a blur on the way to the bathroom. We say no, of course, so he asks again after breakfast. "Can I have a gum ball? I haven't had one yet today." For a while I had a rule that gum balls could not be consumed before lunch. But I gave up on that a few weeks ago. The poor kid just seems happier with a gum ball in his mouth. But of course the stupid little gum ball machine never puts out just one gum ball. Oh no. Out comes at least two, EVERY TIME!! So next thing I know, my adorable little Drew is standing next to me with his little hand reaching up toward me saying "You get the purple one, Mom!" This kid may stink at sharing every single toy in the toy room, but he can share gum balls like nobody's business. Needless to say, I've been brushing a little harder these days. Although I kind of have a one-gum-ball-per-day limit for my own personal consumption, Drew does not. Nope, he'll chew four or five throughout the day, no problem! Now before you shake your head at me and think I'm a terrible mother for letting my child have such sweet treats, let me assure you that this child is not suffering from an overdose of sugar. The kid eats carrots and string beans and peas and apples and oranges and bananas like they're going out of style. So i figure a few bursts of sugar a day isn't going to cause permanent damage. And it's so stinking cute to hear him say "Can I have a gum ball?" and then exclaim "Yeesssssss!" when I tell him he may.

Like I mentioned before, he doesn't get one out of the machine at a time, but because I can't handle more than one a day, I start "saving" the ones he brings me later in the day. For some reason, the keyboard at my computer has become the holding area for mommy's gum balls. At any given time I could have four or five gum balls sitting on my keyboard, sometimes more if Ben is feeling generous with his gum balls as well. My keyboard often looks like a beautiful little rainbow of gum balls.

Honestly, as far as the gum balls go, I could take them or leave them. But man oh man, do I love my kids. Gum ball obsessions and all.

An evening without pictures

One of the things we love about living in Marietta is the "small town feel." There's something wonderful and romantic about a small, old town, rich in history, with traditions all its own. Marietta, for us, is the epitome of all of these things.

Tonight was the annual lighting of the Christmas tree in town. We had actually almost forgotten about it, but another cute Marietta tradition (Santa riding up and down the streets on a firetruck with the red lights spinning all the while shouting "Merry Christmas! Join me at Old Town Hall at 7:00 when we'll light the Christmas tree!") reminded us. We saw the firetruck and flashing lights coming and made it out onto the front porch in time for the kids to wave to Santa. And of course, Santa waved back. Ryan and I looked at each other and said "Oh, goodness, that's tonight!" We even had it on our calendar.

So we hurriedly ate our dinner and got bundled up. We wanted to get there early this year because they are VERY punctual about the whole tree lighting thing and we didn't want to miss it like we did last year. (We were about 42 seconds late last year. Like I said, VERY punctual!) We hopped in the car and drove to the center of town (about a two minute drive at 19 miles per hour). We parked along Market St. and walked over to the Old Town Hall Museum. We got there in time to see Santa and Mrs. Claus ride up on the firetrucks. They were undoubtedly reminding Marietta residents right up until show time! They came off the truck, greeted everyone and then the tree was lit. It actually caught us by surprise because there were no countdown! There was a cute little band playing Christmas carols. It was absolutely picturesque. Then we marched on over to Old Town Hall (just across the street), where everyone waits in line to sit on Santa's lap and then have some cookies and punch. Yes, cookies and punch for all the children.

And there are no pictures of this lovely evening. I'm sure that other people were taking some delightful pictures of the tree, the lights, and Santa. But not us. We even had the camera. But the camera doesn't work well without the battery, which was sitting on the kitchen counter after being freshly charged this afternoon. So, it was an evening without pictures. We'll just have to store the images of this fun adventure in our minds.

Okay, okay...here's your update.

A dear friend recently told me "update your blog!" (Yes, J.M. I'm talking about you!) So here's our update.

Today is Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks for everything there is to be thankful for. I think this year my list is nearly infinite, but I'll try to sum it up:

1. For a God who loves me deeply, passionately and completely, and never expects me to be anything I'm not. And you know what? When all is said and done, I get to spend eternity with Him, this God who created me and loves me so perfectly.

2. For my husband, a man who I am blessed to share life with.

3. For my children, two incredibly special boys who are the joys of my life (okay, so not 100% of the time, but we're being thankful, remember?).

4. For my family (both sides) who supported us when we lived in Colorado and who are still supportive today.

5. For my friends, both near and far, who are a bunch of incredible women. I never dreamed that friendships could be like this.

6. For my church. This one probably should have been higher on the list. What an incredible place. It is an honor to be part of the LCBC church community.

7. For my LIFEGroup. I love you guys so stinkin' much. 'Nuff said.

8. For my sweet Christian Egyptian friend, Triza Habashy, who lives down the alley. She has opened my eyes to so many things.

9. For my house, the labor of love that it is. What a cool project.

10. For our two vehicles that have more miles on them than I ever thought they could.

11. For God's Creation. The mountains, the ocean, the autumn leaves, the stars, the clouds, the sunset, the sunrise, the birds, the flowers, the rivers, the tigers, the horses...

12. Speaking of animals, for my pets. Otis (our nine-year-old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog who has surpassed the average breed life expectancy of eight. I always knew he was above average), Molson (our slightly deranged Australian Shepherd who is loyal to us in so many ways), and Callie (my sweet kitty who seems to know exactly when I need snuggles).

From here on, they are no particular order...just a stream of thoughts.

13. For books like "Captivating" and "Fresh Brewed Life" and "Evangelism Without Additives" - books that challenge me to move and grow.

14. For music. Man oh man, do I love music. Nearly all of it.

15. For my computer - my window to the world. Oh, and technology in general. Do you realize how much fun stuff God has given us to play with?

16. For my journal. My verbal vomit masterpiece.

17. For hobbies - scrapbooking, reading, crocheting, tennis, biking, hiking...

18. For Penn State. Seriously.

19. For Christian counselors. I could go on and on about the value of this one...

20. For quiet spots with time to talk to Jesus.

Okay, so that's just 20. Just a sampling. But it's me. What are you thankful for?

Love to all,

Cindy

Keeners' September Happenings

In September, things started to calm down a bit for us. School was back in full swing, travel slowed down, and we got into a rhythm. Of course, there was still plenty of fun to be had. Since our move back to Pennsylvania two years ago, so much of our memorable times are with family. One such occasion was over Labor Day weekend. Denise suggested that we all head over to Mt. Gretna since this was the last weekend that the Jigger Shop would be open. Mount Gretna is an adorable mountain vacation community, and the Jigger Shop is their fabulous ice cream shop. To see photos of our time at Mt. Gretna, click here.

We also spent the weekend of September 15th at the beach. This weekend was particularly nice because my Saling grandparents were there as well as my aunts, uncles and several cousins from that side of the family. It was quite breezy, but we still managed to spend some time on the beach. Of course the beach is Drew's favorite place to be. He didn't care that it was a little chilly and breezy, he just went about doing his thing. Mostly, his thing was digging. And digging. Oh, and did I mention digging? The funniest thing about it was that he never put the shovel in the sand in the same place twice. He would dig, toss the sand in the air, shift over about a foot or so, and then dig again. Here are some photos of his digging escapades.

We finished off the month with a wonderful family dinner at Mom Keener's. She makes incredible chicken pot pie, and we were more than happy to gather together to eat and hang out together. We even had a little adventure! Mom's van needed a new tire, and Keener Tire Service (originally owned by Linc Keener, Ryan's grandfather) is right around the corner, or across the corn field, depending on how you look at it. We decided to pile in the van to take it over to Keener Tire Service and then walk back. Instead of taking the road to the shop, we took the lane. And the walk back was a lovely autumn evening stroll. Check out our photos here.

So that was our September. Overall, a good month. What will October bring?

What has the Keener family been up to?

I realized that I haven't talked to some of you for quite a while. So here's a little update.

We are still working on our 1800's labor-of-love house in Marietta. We haven't accomplished much over the summer because we've been doing lots of fun stuff including Dutch Wonderland (click on the link to see pictures of our time at DW), a trip to Virginia, and a trip to Washington D.C.

Ben started first grade!! He attends Riverview Elementary school, which is just over a mile from our house, so he and Ryan often ride bikes to school. He really likes his teacher (Miss Wasakoski - not the easiest name for a bunch of first graders, but Ben manages all right) and has already made several friends.

Drew goes to preschool two days a week at the Hildebrandt Learning Center in Mount Joy. He is also quickly making friends (those of you who know Drew well know that he makes friends easily WHEREVER he goes).

Ryan continues to work for Intel and is branching out into new and more challenging projects under a new manager. As many of you know, Ryan lost his father to multiple myeloma on July 1st. Part of Ryan's way of dealing with his dad's death was to build a tree house for our boys. Now when I say tree house, I really mean tree mansion complete with a deck! This thing is impressive! Ryan encouraged them to decorate the walls inside in any way they want, so they have been busy painting. They love it! If you come over, you'll need to sign and date one of the walls!

I (Cindy) am on staff with the kidMinistry at LCBC (Lancaster County Bible Church a.k.a. Lives Changed by Christ), where we have been attending for the last two years. I love it! It is mainly an administrative role, and I get to work with a fun group of people who are passionate about reaching kids and teaching them about their value in Christ. There are 16 of us on staff in the kidMinistry department alone, so there is never a dull moment!