Chad moves
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Chad
Well Chad is mostly moved.  He was able to get a truck from Ryder with a lift in the back and that made things easier. On Saturday we moved most of the stuff from inside the duplex where he was staying.  Then on Sunday he moved tools, tool boxes, etc. He has the rest of this week off to move miscellaneous items and get unpacked.  After seeing how old his dryer and his oven were, I asked him if he regretted buying that old truck with the $1000 of money I gave him as sort of a house warming gift – Nope, he was happier with the old truck….    Still I plan to do this with the other kids when they buy their first house and I will buy new items instead of handing over cash. So far both Chelsea and Joe are getting good grades this school year.  Chelsea is trying to get the position of treasurer for this new club that they have at school for medical technology students.  She feels that she has a good shot at it.  Also she is working on being part of the quiz team for school.  She said that they may tape the show later in October.  She thinks that she will be one of the ones selected to be on the panel.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the quiz team goes against Oakwood – who have won this several times.  Joe is having fun with FFA this year.  Also he is thinking of trying for band.  I think that there is a girl that he likes in band and that is why he wants to join.  But I would be happy with him doing that.  We are prepping for our hunting trip to Kentucky.  Joe wants to really rough it – making a home made tent with a tarp like they did in the old days.  But I am going to be more practical, using a regular tent.  If a cold front moves in, I don’t want the wind blowing in on me all night. Vanessa and the baby stopped in last weekend. Eric had a golf outing and banquet with his work in Cincinnati. So Vanessa tagged along and drove on up to our place to stay overnight.  Baby was a little fussy at first from getting shots and being in a new house I think. She settled down and played and coo’ed with Chelsea.  Vanessa is thinking about shifting gears and getting an assistant nursing certificate.  She hasn’t decided for sure yet. She got exceeds all in most of her ratings at work, but the max pay raise was 4%.  So she was disappointed with that.   

move prep
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Chad

Chad celebrated his 26th birthday last weekend. Went to eat at Golden Corral and then went to see the movie Fearless.  We all had a good time, Chelsea did not pick any fights for a change. Asked Chad about moving into his new house next weekend. "Well we may not do it, Sarah may want to visit some friends." I told him that we can do the grunt work on the weekend, and she can unpack during the week.  Oh, he has his priorities - the first thing he wants to move is his tools...

 Chelsea turned her ankle at open gym, but seems to be doing OK otherwise. She plans to attend the TVS homecoming dance. So we are going dress shopping this week.

camping at Hueston Woods

It was our first camping trip of this year. At one point we had 3 of the youngsters at the campground.  Joe brought his friend Kyle and they seemed to have a good time. They both did some damage to their bikes when they went mountain biking on the trails.  Joe did not want to go fishing for some reason and I went with Chelsea instead. I caught 3 bluegill and a rock bass while she got a teeny tiny bluegill herself. 

 We had a good time for the most part although Chelsea and Joe had a spat and got into some name calling. Chad did the covered bridge poker run with Sarah and the Mary Kay. Then Sarah spent the rest of the week end with her family while Chad stayed with us. Vanessa spent a quiet weekend at home with the baby. Eric was off on Monday so they had that day off together.  

Elaina a lefty
Mood:  cool
Topic: Elaina

The Deeters visited this weekend.  Everyone seems to be fine. Vanessa went to Amanda Brubakers baby shower with Becky. During the end of the visit I was watching the baby and I noticed that she was using her left hand to try and push her collar up to her mouth.  She also pushed away the bottle with her left hand when she was finished with her bottle.  So it looks like lefthandedness skipped a generation. She was coo'ing a little bit too.  Definitely longer as well.  A height predictor shows that she should be around 5'4", but according to Vanessa she is in the 80% percentile as far as height.  So she may be taller than that.

 Vanessa is back at work now, she seems to have lost some weight too. She said that if they do decide to do surgery on my knee that she may have inspected some of the equipment that they would use.

 Chad and Sarah went to Kentucky this past weekend. They had a good time at a water park and also some friends of Sarah's met them there.  All in all a good week end for them.  The close on the house outside of Eaton takes place today.  I think that the previous owners have like 30 days to move out, then Chad can move in. Yippee!

Chelsea and Joe seem to doing OK at school so far. Joe has been playing a lot of airsoft.  They were playing at the neighbors and one of the kids was playing without goggles and got his eye damaged. Had to have laser surgery to fix his corenea. This was the same kid, Luke, that Anthony left at the Wendy's parking lot in Eaton and got put in jail for being out after curfew. According to Joe, Luke is not allowed at the Schaefer's anymore...

Oh, and Joe fixed up his airsoft pistol to be an automatic. I don't understand how he did it, but it works. he pulls the trigger once and it will empty the clip. Maybe he has a future as an armorer.  

house deal is on
Topic: Chad

Well it looks like Chad has finally got himself squared away to purchase a house. They close on a house outside of Eaton next Tuesday. It will be great to get all of this clutter out of here. He must take after Becky - doesn't want to part with anything.   I think that his girlfriend preferred another place, but this place is pretty much ready to move into without any work. They are going to Somerset KY for a car rally. He is taking the Mary Kay.  He is compromising with Sarah and is going to go to a waterpark and such.  She can stand so much of the car stuff and then she needs a break. He did interview for a new job with a company that will be servicing Cincinnati Bell's fleet. They won't ramp up until October, so he won't know anything right away.  So there could be a lot of changes in store for the young man in the next few months.

 Vanessa is visiting this weekend so it will be nice to see the crew. Chelsea has moved in with Uncle Vaughn for the school year. Now if we could just get Joe to move in one of his friends...  Anyway so far so good with Chelsea, I think she may have been a little lonely, but I think she will adjust as she meets new people in town.  Joe is adjusting to being an only child. He is disappointed that his computer time has been cut back. I told him that I would bump it up some if he gets good grades. I just don't want him to dig a hole like he did last year.

Fair week
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Joe

Joe has been having a fun summer. Now it is fair time and he is staying over at Kyles and going each day to the fair with him. He has some money from baling hay to have a good time, plus some money from me for helping to reroof the house.

 Ran into Jackie Cox's mother and father the other day. Found out that she got a scholarship to play basketball at Urbana.  So I was very happy to hear about that. Chelsea is working hard to get ready for her season as well.

Chad is trying for another house outside of Germantown. It can be moved into as is, but someone else is putting a bid in on it. So he will have to wait and see if it goes thru or not. Sarah is a big sister for a local girl, she took her to the fair.

July vaca and work
Mood:  not sure
Topic: General

Went to Louisville to visit the Deeters.  Little Elaina is becoming more aware of her surroundings.  When Joe was in the loft she kept looking at him.  She also seems to like the light from the windows. Becky is content to be with the baby. I think that I could leave her with Vanessa and Eric for a month and she would be find with that - as along as she gets to hold the baby. 

 We meant to go boating and towed the boat all the way to Louisville. We got the boat in the Ohio River and then the prop would not lower into the water. I tried everything I knew and even stopped by boat shop but had no luck. We made the best of it.  We stopped by a go-cart place and raced.  I did OK in the beginning, but Joe caught on about mid way thru and passed me up.  I stayed on his tail but could not pass him.  Did eat a lot of dust and pebbles. Chelsea's cart was a dog, she could not catch us at all. 

Chelsea did excel at air hockey.  She beat both me and Joe.  I was the winner at putt putt golf.  We visited the Frazier arms and armour museum on Sunday. It had a lot of medevial armor that we all found interesting. We ended the weekend with a meal at the Kingfish restaraunt by the Ohio River. 

 With the boat out we had to cancel the trip to Lake Erie. We will try again in August. Kyle is going to the fair, so moving it back a week is not an option. So it has become a working vacation. Joe has been helping me reroof the house. He is doing a good job so far. Chelsea is at the UC basketball camp with her new team.  She was enthused to go.  Becky said she shot a three point shot in her first game.  I have not had a chance to speak with her.

 Chad in back in house hunting mode again. He backed out of the deal for the first house. It was going no where. We looked at a couple of houses around Eaton - one in town, one outside of town. I think he will be happier if he can find a place in the country. Oh, he is moving in with Sarah this week.  Seems like a lot of work when he might end up moving again in a few months after he buys a place. I did find out that she is a country music fan. So that is another mark in the plus column. 

4th of July
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: General
Well the fourth of July went OK. We had an OK display this year. It was smaller than last years. We did have one close call. One of the multiple tube displays fell over. It became the wheel of death. Every time it shot off a tube, it spun until the next shot. The chairs around the campfire emptied in a hurry. They were rocketing by and exploding all over the yard and tree's.

Joe earned his first check. He baled straw for the Metzgers. He seemed quite proud of earning the money. They pay $10 an hour now, I earned like $2 or $2.50 an hour back in the day. Joe also got a Remington 710. He seems quite proud of it. He still owes me some money, but between his allowance and his work, he should pay it off soon.

Joe and Chad were in the Mary Kay during the Eaton bicentennial parade. There was a car show afterward, and they got some hotdogs and a drink.

Elaina Arrives
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Elaina
The Eagle has Landed.


We drove to Louisville early in the morning. We left at 4am. Everyone was excited and we decided that we wouldn't be able to sleep anyway so we left. It was stormy and raining as we got closer to the city. We could see the lightening in the distance as we travelled thru the hills of central Kentucky. It rained so hard that we had to slow down a couple of times.

Elaina Jane Deeter arrived Tuesday morning June 20th 9:15 am. She weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces, height is 20 1/2 inches. Delivery was via c-section. Vanessa and baby are doing fine. She is due to be released from the hospital on Friday.

Baby has dark brown hair. Big feet. She has big blue eyes, which we hope that she will keep. Two nurses said that they see lots of babies go thru the hospital, but that none of them have her pretty blue eyes - which we think come from her Dad. The nose is unmistakable - definitely the Tilton nose. Nursing is slow, Vanessa is trying to breast feed, but it is not working real well - although progress is being made. They think that things will work out better once they are home. The baby is taking some formula for the time being.

Since the delivery was via c-section Elaina looks like a little china doll, very pretty. She has some brusing to the top of her head, but other than that she seems to be fine. Very alert when she is awake, she seems to be taking it all in. She likes to keep her feet moving, kicking when she can.

Another life's journey has begun. It will be fun watching the young lady follow her path.

I did take Joe and Chelsea to the Louisville Zoo. One of the highlights was feeding the birds. They had cups of nectar for a dollar. I had one on each shoulder and one was licking me on the neck - for the salt I suspect. I couldn't get them to leave me - I had to ask one of zoo people "How do I get them off me?"

Joe's favorite was the Lemur's at the end of the visit. They got into a fight over some leaves and carrots. So it added some excitement at the end of the trip.

sweet 18
Mood:  suave
Topic: Chelsea
Well chelsea turned 18 this past weekend. She celebrated with an Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake, a night at Jokers Comedy Club, and a rose tattoo on her back. The rose is unique, but we'll see if she still likes it 20 years from now.

Joe played some air soft at Kyle's. Kyle stepped on two of his clips and now the air gun won't work and we can't find any new clips. Kyle offered to buy him a new one. He likes the glow in the dark pellets for night actions. The boy is having a fun summer, thats for sure.

Chad worked like crazy this past week end getting his house in order. They are to do a final inspection today or tomorrow. Sarah and Joe and a friend gave him a hand. Looks like this is finally coming to a conclusion.

Vanessa is patiently waiting on Elaina. Her due date is this weekend. The doctor gave a hint that a caesaran section is not out of the question. At this point I don't think she cares, she just wants to ge this over with. We will see what happens, the due date is 5 days away.