Turtle

Totally forgot to post pictures of the turtle we "won" the honor of taking care of for the summer! Braden's third grade class had 3 large frogs & 1 turtle. At the end of the school year, parents could fill out permission slips if they were ok with their child taking care of one of the pets for the summer. The slips were then put into a bowl and "WINNERS" were drawn. We won Turtle!

He's supposedly the easiest to care for. Once a week, Jon buys him a dozen crickets at the pet store. In between, he gets apple slices and fresh water (he has a pie pan filled with water that he likes to lounge in). Sometimes it seems like he's trying to claw his way out of the tank, so we let him hang out in the yard and explore.
Here are pictures from his first outing. Dallas enjoyed following him for about 5 minutes. Then he got too boring for her!

We Survived!

We had a great week at VBS. I should have taken more pictures! I brought my camera one day and managed to capture Braden being the fun & outgoing guy everyone else knows. He was dancing, singing, and cheering loudly! I know it's a little hard to see in the pictures, but he is on stage, front and center, in the black t-shirt and red shorts and hat. The kids are divided into 4 groups based on grade. They learn a cheer at the beginning of the week and then have a cheer-off each day during closing. (It was even Braden's idea to do the surfing move you see in the first pic!) They won 2 out of 5 days!!! -- And the tall girl in the green is a leader, not a giant kid!

Crazy busy!

Only 4 more days until Vacation Bible School begins!!!!! We had a meeting/decorating time on Wednesday. I spent this morning at the church and this evening at the ball park. Friday night we all get to help decorate the sanctuary. -- I need to remember to bring my camera along. Krista's design is awesome. -- And Braden is playing in a baseball tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Jon's on-call Saturday morning and I may be up at the church, so Braden is riding with a teammate. Jon will head to Lima in time to see the second game! (Keep them in your prayers as they travel)
Busy! Busy! Busy! I can't wait for next Friday night and the end of VBS!

Info

You can log onto www.vwindependent.com for more details

What a Night!

Last night, Brooke, Nikki, and Krista came over to watch a movie and hang out. Apparently, there is never a dull gathering at the Van Cleave house. Our night was spiced up by cell phones ringing with news of bad weather approaching - FAST. As we paused our movie to watch the Weather Channel and have Jon check online, the tornado sirens went off. We ran outside! It looked fine. I turned around and looked to the SW, it looked really bad. Brooke couldn't get a hold of Mitch, so she took off for home.
Several minutes later, (Jon's back upstairs because "it's not really coming this way," Braden went next door to my grandparents' to be closer to their neighbors' basement) Krista heads out to put up her NEW car windows with Nikki not too far behind. I yell at Jon to come down because the wind is out of control. As he is getting downstairs, they come flying back inside looking for the safest spot in our basementless house. Trees/limbs had just come crashing down before their eyes! Nikki can't get a hold of Josh. Krista can't find Andy and the kids. I can't get through at Brooke's to see if she made it home. We ended up getting Braden and going to the neighbors' basement. But the tree limbs seemed to have been the worst of it. After we emerged, we started looking around at the damage. We even grabbed the camera and walked down the street to see a car that was now under the majority of a tree!

Here we are (minus Brooke G) in my grandparents' front yard. Krista's brand new SUV was several feet away. It was fine. -- And yes, it appears I was under dressed for my movie night!

As we talked to my cousin, several houses down, someone noticed this rainbow.


This is about halfway down the street. They had more limbs down in the back, but the house looked like it had been spared.


It was so weird to look down that hole. Can you see how the massive roots just snapped off!

And then we decided to head out to see if we could find where a tornado "reportedly" touched down outside of town. We picked up Brooke first. She was fine. Her boys were fine. They even headed out to Burger King for a snack! Nikki found Josh, also ok. Krista finally found Andy and the kids. Everyone was safe. Krista's kids lost their swing set though.
Here is the only exciting thing we saw, aside from trees and limbs. Not sure what else will be revealed this morning.

Sneak Peek

Here are two of the great pictures Layce took of our family! I am so excited to finally have new family pictures and a few of just Jon and myself! -- And those of you living in Van Wert will soon see our faces on billboards! Layce is using us for an ad she's designing for an upcoming seminar on building great families. (Didn't know we were a great family did you.) --

Baseball Season

Here are a few pictures of Braden playing baseball. He is pitching this year, though not always well. Luckily, he has a great dad who has been working on technique with him. Eventually, it will all come together.