changes
Mood:  not sure
Topic: General
Well Chelsea has elected not to play basketball this year, citing differences with the coach. I think that she is just lazy. I told her that in the real world you are going to have bosses that you don't like, so you may as well get used to it. Anyway we told her that she has to get a job to pay for her own car expenses. She has an interview at Wendy's today.

Joe had some bad grades for his midterm report. So his computer time has been severely cut back. He is grounded until the end of quarter when we get his grades. We told him that he has to study every night whether or not he has homework.

Chad is unhappy with his work. They switched his position around and changed his work hours again. He is tired of getting the short end of the stick. He is working on getting his CDL for work, then he may start hunting for another position elsewhere.

Vanessa and Eric are excited about the baby. They are taking extraordinary care. Watching what she eats, drinks, etc. I think she maying be playing up the pregnancy thing a bit much. She is already ordering Eric around - get this for me, get that for me. I can see it when she is 8-9 months along, but not now.

I am going to hijack this blog to track my adventures in India. This was originally intended to track my kids. But I want to document this journey.

Driving home last night I flip over to country music because the talk shows are boring. The first song I hear is a new one in which the theme is, "I wonder what they will think of me when I am gone." Then on the news they are searching for a missing plane. What uplifting things to hear before departing.

Air India didn't inspire confidence when I attempted to sign up for their frequent flyer program. I kept getting unspecified error messages on their website. I called the NY office. I was on hold listening to Indian music for like 15-20 minutes. When they picked up, I was half way thru my sentance when I was transferred. When the next extension picked up I tried to quickly report my problem and click, the connection was closed.

Next I called during second shift to the Chicago office. The resolution was to fill out the form on the webpage. Lady, I've tried that form like 4 times and it won't work for me. So she gave me a number to call, a fax number... I finally discovered the problem by trial and error - it does not like the "ChrisT" part of my home email id. When I use my "Chris.Tilton" work id, it took it just fine. While I am working with software engineers in India maybe I should stop by their HQ and show them how to have their software show meaningful error messages...

Well the excellent adventure will begin in a little over 24 hours. It should be an interesting and enlightening visit. Who knows, maybe I will join the Hare Krishna while I am over there!!!

Pappaw Gone
Topic: General
Chad, Joe, Becky, Tom, and then Jessica & Jimmy were there at the trailer when Pappaw passed away. Jessica just got there for his last few breaths, it was almost like he waited for her to arrive before letting go. He was born on a farm and died on a farm, I'm glad that we were able to do this for him. Although it was a hassle sometimes having him there, it was also good for the kids and him - they got to be closer to their grandfather. Even Joe's friend Cody had a good time visiting and staying over at Pappaw's trailer.

It has been a trying time for the family. It has taken a lot of Becky's attention. At the funeral they asked for anyone who had any last words. Chad and Vanessa got up and had a nice little speech that Chad had written up. Chelsea also stood up and gave a last commemoration of their grandfather. They did a good job of capturing what he meant to them. Joe got to lead the horse drawn carriage to the gravesite. So everyone got to participate. Little Kaitlyn even got up to say a few words.

Glad to see the family come together when the pressure is on. Joe asked why we did so much - I told him that when something needs to be done, the Tiltons stand up and do it. When he asked why, I told him because we always believe in doing the right thing. I don't know if he bought in to it or not, but hopefully it will sink in.

Surprise
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Vanessa
Vanessa and Erica came up to visit the family this weekend. They visited the Deeters first then came down from Covington to visit us. They had a small gift to us from Eric's Mom and Dad. We were puzzled but Becky opened it up. It was a set of babies bibs, we both looked at each other - does this mean what I think it means? Vanessa verified that yes she was expecting and would probably have the baby in June! What a surprise, I had the impression that they were going to wait 2 years. Life changes quickly sometimes. It is an exciting time for us.

Joe got into a fight at school, but did not get into trouble as he was not the aggressor. The other kid started it. He held his own from what I understand. However he did have to attend a Saturday school for goofing off in class. Chad is down in Kentucky attending a rally for vintage cars. Sounds like quite the weekend so far. He got to attend a breakfast banquet sponsored by Auto Zone. Then got to ride in a pleasure boat on Lake Cumberland. His reaction to his sister's news, "Gee, and I'm not even married yet." Chelsea is in conditioning for basketball. So far so good. She should have a good shot at varsity this season. She had her best game in the fall league, scoring 6 points, getting some good rebounds, and making a few steals.I let her and her boyfriend take Joe and Cody out to the cheap theatre to catch a movie, then goto to a haunted trail.

Chels
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea is going thru another mood swing. She didn't want to play basketball. Then she decided to give it another shot after I reminded her about the deal. You have to play sports if you want your transportation take care of. No sports = no car. So for now, she is playing. She seems to be enjoying school so that is a plus.

Joe is maintaining. Seems to get taller everytime I look at him. Saw Vanessa briefly last weekend. Chad doesn't like his transfer to the Dayton hub. They have him on first shift and he doesn't like those hours. Plus his boss is a lot tougher. He misses being at Middletown.

Vanessa's wedding
Mood:  happy
Topic: Vanessa
Vanessa got married on September 10. The day got off to a shaky start when they arrived at the hairdressers for their noon hair appointment. They were a no show. After waiting for 15 minutes Becky made some calls and found someone to take care of them - thank goodness.

The rest of the day went rather well. The ceremony itself went just fine. I didn't step on her toes during the father - daughter dance, so that was a plus. I told the story about how Becky had bought Vanessa's wedding dress at a garage sale for a dollar. Then I related how Becky promised her a husband for a dollar. Then I gave Eric one of my silver dollars as payment.

A big highlight of the wedding was Chad presenting Vanessa with a car as a present. It was a nice 1995 Buick. He got it for $300 because the transmission was bad. When he was finished working on it. He had about $500 total in it and the vehicle was worth about $3000 to $4000 dollars.

School starts
Mood:  a-ok
Well school has started back up. We had to buy Chelsea Kakis(sp) for school, so we got her like 5-6 pairs. Teacher says they have to be tan. So we shall have to make a return trip to the store. We didn't know that color mattered - I thought it was just a style of pants. Joe can't play football because of his grades from last year. Hopefully he has learned his lesson about how making mistakes can cause problems in the future.

Amanda Brubaker got married to a fellow named Joe. She is the same age as Vanessa. She seemed real happy, I hop e that they have a good life together.

Chelsea has a new car after clobbering a telephone pole with her old one. She was lucky to escape with bruises; the car was a total loss.

vaca and crashin'
Mood:  lazy
Topic: General
Went to Cambridge for a few days of vacation. Well the first day we did go to grandma Susan's and did some work on the fence. We went fishing right before a storm. Joe got a big bite. We thought that he had a snag and told him to stop reeling, but the rod tip was bouncing around - he had a big fish on the line. About 5 minutes in to the battle, Joe relaxed because his arms were getting tired. The fish took advantage and threw the hook. We had to fly back to the dock as the storm approached.

Joe was able to land a catfish later in the week. We went out at night and it was a full moon. Salt Fork lake was scenic. We sat for a while with the lights out and the music off and just watched the stars. We were reluctant to go back but had promised to go in by midnight.

Chelsea gave us a scare after we returned. On her way home from her boyfriends she went off the shoulder of the road and over corrected and went into the opposite ditch. Then she flew over a drainage pipe and when airborne. Finally she hit a utility pole and splintered it. She finally came to a stop pointing back the direction that she had already come.

Luckily her seatbelt held her in place. She had a rope burn and bruised from the seatbelt but was otherwise OK. She did go to the hospital for checkout since she stated that her head hit the roof. I quipped that all they would find was rocks. Anyway 6 hours later she was released with a clean bill of health. The wreck happened about 10:45pm, we did not get home until daybreak, about 6am the next day.

The car is totaled. The passenger side front fender impacted the pole and was crushed back into the engine. It impacted at an angle indicating that the car was airborne and leaning forward. In a way it was fortunate that she hit the pole. The car probable would have flipped several times had it not.

She is grounded for 30 days. That is the standard for any accidents or tickets. We will search for another car soon.

Vanessa and Eric visited. They only stayed a short time because of his work. It is always nice to see her. Chad is back with April. A moth drawn to a flame. I feel that she will stay with him until someone better comes along and his heart will be broken again.

crawdad ranch & cheese cake
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: General

Joe got a few aquariums from grandma Susan. He put his guppies in one of them and the biggest one he is catching crawdads and placing inside. He wants to begin raising them. The roundups should be interesting, don't know how you would go about branding them...

Chelsea got some recipe's out of magazines she got from grandma Freedmans. One experiment was a cake she brought for after the viewing. I called it a lava cake. She made a hole in middle for some sort of filling. It was a soft filling and when you cut out a slice of cake, it kind of oozed. But I had to admit it was tasty. She misunderstood what it meant to garnish with mint and actually placed the mint in the cake mix. Eric thought that it added a toothpaste quality to the mix.

Her second experiment was with cheesecake. She made a reecie cup cheesecake for her boyfriend Ron. It was a hit. She made flowers on top with a couple of small reecie cups and some sort of candy flavored pringles looking things that looked like the petals. I told her she may be the next martha Stewart. She quipped, "I'd like to be like her except the jail part".

Cousins
Mood:  happy
It has been a whirlwind week. The Grace's are in town and the cousins have been able to spend some time together. We went to Kings Island, Brookville lake for boating, Hueston Woods for swimming, and Mike stayed over at our house for paintball.

It was interesting to see how the older two, Katie and Chad, seemed to hit it off. Then the two troubled middle children, Chelsea and Callie seemed to match up. Finally Joe and Mike got along great. Although Mike is not the youngest of the Grace's, Joe and he are real close in age.

Joe did manage to get lost at Kings Island for about an hour to help spice up that trip. Chad put a nail in my tractor tire - it cost like $150 to fix it. I guess that it couldn't be a perfect week.

Grandma Freedman passed away - after heather arrived. It was almost like she waited for her to get back before letting go. She was all about family, so it is fitting that us three remaining grandkids would be together the week that she passed away. She spent a lot of time with us grandchildren, the rest are in California so we were a bit closer I think. I like to think that she was able to watch the cousins this week and see them get along so well and have a good time like they did. If she had been here, she would have liked to have been with the children.

One unusual coincidence? I had purchased a pear tree back in the spring. It never did anything - it was basically a stick in the ground, no leaves, the buds showed no life, nothing. I was planning on cutting it down with my chainsaw when I had some spare time. On Sunday I was showing Heather my boat in the back yard and lo and behold - it had burst out in small leaves all over.

A coincidence that on the day she passed away the tree finally sprouted leaves, or... Reminds me of the two balloons at Grandpa Freedmans funeral service. During the memorial service two ballons that had gone up to the ceiling during a party the day before came down in front of his favorite son, Uncle Vaughn, and his namesake - Joe. Again was it just coincidence or an unseen hand.

baseball n wedding stuff
Mood:  bright
Topic: General
Took Joe and Chelsea to see a Reds game. It was our first visit to the new stadium. Kids had a good time overall although they did get a little bored towards the end. Neither of them are big baseball fans, so they didn't get into the game so much. They did comment about the rude guy behind us. He was talking about his sons baseball team. "There are what, 4 good kids on your team and the rest of them suck, right?" Was one of the comments he made. I glanced back and this kid was only like 8-9 years old. What kind of parent makes a comment like that to his child? Well we didn't have to look far as it appeared that grandma was also behind us. And she was ragging on the outfielders and was making fun of the Japanese player for Saint Louis. I guess the apple did not fall far from the tree.

Both Joe and Chelsea thought that her comments were rude - you shouldn't make fun of someone just because they are different. But we enjoyed the atmosphere nevertheless. I joked to Joe "How come I have to sit by Chelsea when you get to sit by two beautiful women???" His seat was next to two young women who were there with their boyfriends.

Vanessa has set a date for her wedding - Sept 10. We have a lot of planning to do between now and then. Did take the boat out on Friday. Cody and Joe, Morgan and Chelsea all went tubing. Chelsea tried to water ski, but that did not work out too well this go around.