Louisville
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Vanessa
Well it looks like Vanessa will be moving to Louisville for sure. Her boyfriend, Eric, is moving down there this week to take a management position down there. She is going to finish her quarter at Wright State, stay with us for a week or two while she looks to transfer to a school down there, find a place to rent, etc. then move down there too.

So this will be a busy spring for her. Oh, she is also looking to sell her truck and buy an economical car. Grandpa Jack may be willing to sell the car that Chad just finished working on. It is a 3 cylinder so it will be a lot more economical than the full sized pickup truck. She owes me money for the truck, I am tempted just to take the truck for use around the farm and call it even.

Becky is upset that she is moving out of state. I asked her, did you think the kids will stay here forever? Plus it is only about a 3 hour drive or so to get there. It's not like she's moving to one coast or another. I told her that maybe we could go visit for a weekend this summer or somthing. Also Becky tells me that Eric was waiting to get this position, get settled in, and would probably propose to Vanessa soon. So there could be all sorts of change in the next year or two.

Chelsea is hanging with Michelle again. I can see a change in her attitude. The double date this weekend was with an older guy named Ron. Seemed clean cut at least. Hard to tell if they really hit it off or not. She celebrated a friends birthday on Saturday - a group of them went and watched a couple of movies and grabbed a bite to eat. There is an AAU meeting tonight, basketball practices will be starting shortly.

Joe inherited Vanessa's futon. She is getting rid of stuff she doesn't need. He was happy to toss his old twin bed and fold out the futon - it doubled his sleeping space. Also Joe has almost caught up with Vanessa height-wise. I am thinking that sometime this year that Vanessa will have the dubious distinction of being the littlest Tilton. Also I noticed a little shadow on his upper lip. Becky said that she noticed the same thing. We are wondering if he will be hairy like Uncle Vaughn.

I did not ask Chad about April, I am guessing that he is still seeing her. He helped Vanessa by fixing her headlights in the truck. It was a bad switch. She paid him for his help. I tried to get him to do some 100K maintenance on my truck - but he said that he is getting tired of working for other people on the weekends. I told him that I could understand that - I'll just take it to a repair shop. Some of the easy stuff, I'll just do myself. He seems to be enthused about taking the Duster to the drag strip - but he needs to get hopping. Spring is almost here.

Relationships
Topic: Chad
Well Chad is seeing April again. Like a moth drawn to a candle I guess. He must think that this time it will be different. Chelsea may go on a double date with Michelle. Michelle is now engaged, although she has left school. It sounds like Chelsea's first experience with a blind date. This may be interesting.

Took Joe shopping for his birthday. We went to Mendolsons(sp) surplus in Dayton. He got some electronic parts there. Then we went to buy some more lego's. He must have enough now to cover his walls if he wanted to.

Pokey Pants Vanessa waited until the last minute again to register at Wright State. So she didn't get all of the classes that she wanted.

Joe Bday
Topic: Joe
Well our baby is now officially 13. He had Kyle and Cody stay overnight. They watched TV, played games on the computer, and bounced on the trampoline. Poor Joe was recovering from a cold, so he wasn't quite 100%.

Chelsea decided to duck out of the last tournament game in basketball. hard to say what the exact reason is. She claims that she was getting the cold shoulder from other girls on varsity. I asked her was she going to do next year if she made varsity and still got the cold shoulder? She also was kinda sorta seeing a guy and they parted ways. She has a habit of acting out when relationships go bad. So this could be a reaction to that as well. I am not going to psychoanalize her. I told her that I was displeased and left it at that.

Chad rode the bull at the Yellow Rose. I wonder if he is turning into a redneck??? He must have met someone there on Saturday night because on Sunday he said he had to go see someone in Verona. We don't know any one that he would see in town.

Vanessa is still going round and round with the apartment people. They are selling the joint and the maintenance is going down, down, down. Her ceiling is still not patched up all the way, sink and tub are leaking. She is really getting fed up.

BB
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea was able to score her first varsity basket. TVS had a big lead over New Miami and they put all the subs in during the last few minutes. She posted up and made a basket. I don't know if she was nervous, over excited, or what, but she had like 2 fouls and 2 turnovers in the 2 minutes or so that she was in the game.

She dropped Byrant from Eaton, and is now seeing a country boy, also from Eaton. FFA, listens to country music, etc. We'll see how this relationship goes.

BB, truck, last teenager.
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea's team won in OT against Bradford. She had a good 4th quarter. She had to sit out a good bit of the 2nd and 3rd quarters due to foul trouble. When she got back on the court, she did a good job on both offense and defense. Hit some key fouls to tie, then give South the lead. She scored 14 points.

Vanessa had to replace a bad battery in her truck, no word on Eric's try for management.

Joe will be 13 this Saturday. Hard to imagine our youngest as a teenager. He missed Saturday school last week, so he has to pay his dues tomorrow.

Civic & BB
Topic: Chad
Chad finally got the Honda Civic that he was fixing for Grandpa Jack running. I was working in the barn on something else and gave him a hand. It wouldn't hardly run and seemed to be spitting back up thru the carberator(sp). Came to find out that the exhaust pipe was clogged with a mice nest! He loosed up the exhaust pipe, got it running, and slowly tightened it back up until it blew out all of the plastic and debris. Anyway it frees up some extra space in the barn. I told him that he needs to get his plymouth duster ready for this summer.

Chelsea's team lost in OT to Ansonia. She scored 7 points, including one three point shot. She had a rough game inside - she probably missed 8-10 shots in the paint.

Fight, BB
Topic: Chelsea
Wow Chelsea told me about a viscious fight at High School. Scott Leedy has a reputation for being mouthy - I recall Chelsea complaining about him picking on her in Junior High. He said something to the kid in front of him in class. I think the kid's name was Andy. He turned in his seat and gave him a pop. The teacher turned around and asked, "Did you just hit him???" Andy had stunned Scott and then got out of his seat and took a full swing. The second punch broke his nose, knocked loose a tooth, and knocked him out. An ambulance had to take away Scott and Andy was taken away by the local police.

Chelsea said that Scott probably deserved a punch for all the kids he picked on over the years, but didn't deserve the damage from the second hit.

Chelsea had a good game against Franklin Monroe. The reserve lost, the varsity was beaten soundly. She figured she scored 8 points or so. That seems to be her average in the last half of the season. I was not able to be at the game as I had to cover Brookville - Dixie(Dixie won on a Jessi Dunn trey with 10 seconds left).

Joe got in trouble and has Saturday school tomorrow. He was clowning around with some other students and they were tripping on another. Apparently he tripped a cheerleader who took offense and reported him to a teacher. Nothing I like better than getting up at 7:30am on a Saturday morning - who's being punished here???

Chad has had a rough go of it fixing Jimmy's car. The starter was bad, and he was going to change it out for like $35. More of a favor than anything else. Not one, but two starters were bad from the parts place. He says that he is just about fed up with doing extra work on the side after this. Can't say that I blame him, although I was going to ask him to do my 100K maintenance on the pick up truck. Maybe I'll wait a month and let him cool down...

Chelsea Bio Tech - Vanessa moving?
Topic: General
Chelsea's team had an easy night against Carlisle. They won easily. Despite limited playing time, she scored 8 points and was second highest scorer. Her post moves seem to be improving.

Went with Chelsea to CTC where they have a Bio-Tech program. I am not enthused with her leaving TVS and going to CTC, but she seems to have a genuine interest in this field and wants to get a 4 year degree in it. They seem to have a decent lab set up - and some of the courses are supposed to transfer as college credits. I told her that if this is really what she wants to do, then it is fine by me.

Vanessa's boyfriend Eric is trying for a management position at Home City Ice. If he gets transferred out of Dayton, Vanessa said that she would finish her quarter at Wright State and then find a school close to where he is working and transfer there to be close to him. Becky is not enthused, but I told her that it is best to travel while you are young.

Topic: Chelsea
The team had an easy win over Northridge last night. Chelsea was high points with 8.

Basketball/Birthday
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea got into foul trouble early against Arcanum. She hit a trey and got a basket from the field. But her playing time was limited. She was disappointed. I think the team got behind and the coach decided to play the bench some. I told Chelsea that she was still one of the higher scorers for the game for TVS even with limited minutes, but that did not console her much. She really wants to work hard and get on varsity, but it does not look promising for this year. Becky tried to boost her spirits by getting her hair done. It looks nice.

Celebrated Vanessa's birthday this weekend. She stayed overnight and we ate fruit over angel food cake. We are all trying to watch our weight I guess. She has an easy class schedule this spring, so that should help her grade point average.

I think that Chad and Amanda are pretty much history. He is giving her one more last chance. Found out that he helped her out by getting gifts out of lay away. Sounds like he can kiss that money goodbye. Some lessons we learn the hard way...