A Week in the Life of the Trout's

Yes, Micah passed the test and got his temps on Friday. Needless to say, he was excited. We are now entering into one of the final phases of independence. In a few more months, he won't need me to be his chauffer. I'm not too sad about that part. I do spend a lot of my time in the car taking him to all of his practices and social engagements. He does more than Lauren and Nathaniel ever thought to do!

Last week, we woke up to a yard full of turkeys - I guess to celebrate the holiday! It was really cute. We have been forked, TP'd numerous times, Saran wrapped, flamingoed, but this was a first for turkeys in our yard. I know our neighbors think we have weird friends!
This post is a long one simply because I took pictures last week! Our life has always been busy but this past year takes the cake. With Greg's new position comes tons more responsibility and that translates into a lot of work. All these pictures happened in just one week. This by no means shows what all we did because I didn't take pictures of everything. Our calendars are full from morning till night and I just don't have time to update the blog as much as I would like. We love what we do but we are rarely home and when we are, we are catching up on what didn't get done because we weren't home:) This next week, for example, we have to paint our kitchen and family room, finish the cabinets, clean house, cook for 35 people on Sunday, take Micah to all of his practices (every evening this week, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon), decorate the church for Christmas before Sunday, go grocery shopping, and decorate our house for Christmas before company comes on Sunday! Next week is worse but I won't bore you with the details!!!! What I wouldn't give for a week at the beach right now. Someday.
This was our 2nd Annual PK Christmas party. From left to right we have Eli, Alanna, Abbi, Jenna, Kenzie, Jessica, and Robby. We had so much fun with them even though our house got a tad messy. Maybe I shouldn't make things in the kitchen with them, but they love it and they think our house is so much fun.
Greg helped Jessica make her snowman ornament. We used paint, sharpies, glass bulbs and a lot of different interpretations of what a snowman looked like! They were hilarious. Have you ever seen a snowman with red cheeks and hair?!
Eli is VERY consciencious. He is the most analytical thinker I know and he doesn't like to get messy or have things out of order. He was born on Greg's birthday.
Abbi looked so cute with her toothless smile. She started kindergarten this year and has grown up so much!
Alanna is learning to read, draw really well, and be the life of the party.
Robby is the oldest at 11 and he is very helpful with the little ones. It is hard to find activities that 6 kids ages 7 and under will want to do that an 11 year old will think is fun but Robby is a good sport. We made chocolate (brown, white, red, and green) covered pretzels decorated with all kinds of sprinkles and candy. Needless to say, some of the candy went into little mouths instead of on the pretzels and some landed on the floor. Okay, maybe more than some! But the creations were yummy.
Kim helped the girls make necklaces. We had beads EVERYWHERE but the girls looked so glamorous!
"Pastor Gweg" helped the little ones a lot while I kept the activities going and the food coming. For little kids, they sure did eat a lot of snacks.
Jessica is a budding 2nd grade artist who loves anything creative and she loves to write stories. She was my helper for the day.
This is Lauren and some co-workers on "Black Friday". They had to be at work sooo early. Alex, the one with the tie, is the owner's son who pitched in and was a big help.
This is Dan's grandfather. We went to the Hergenrather's for Thanksgiving this year since we couldn't travel. It was also Jack's 79th birthday. They have faithfully served Faircreek Church for many years. They make sure we have coffee, doughnuts, and bagels with cream cheese every Sunday morning.
Jack had to show us his one man band instrument and the other man in the picture is Dan's dad, Steve. He was the official emcee for the day. We played games all afternoon and had a blast.
This, of course, is Micah and Dan's mom, Terry. We played Catch Phrase, Trivial Pursuit and Taboo. His family is fun to be with and there was a ton of food to eat. They even fried a turkey just like Marvin!
I kind of got these pictures out of sequence. This is the Chick-fil-A crowd on Thanksgiving Day. They went in for 3 hours to get everything ready for shoppers on Friday. They snuck down to Santa's chair at the mall and took pictures. They were the only ones there so they took advantage of the photo op.
Lauren and Micah still have to break the wishbone from the turkey. Lauren won but she won't tell us what her wish was.
We had Thanksgiving with Kim and Nathaniel on Saturday. They are first time home owners now. They will be moving within the next month. I'll take pictures when we go to paint and help them move in. Nathaniel loves his job and Kim now works at Huntington Bank. Their house is halfway between both jobs and about 25 minutes from here.
The kids dragged out the Foos (not sure of the spelling?!) Ball table from the garage and played it all weekend. Lauren and Micah are the champs. It seems that no one can beat them or wants to try anymore!
Greg and Dan tried, but they lost. Well, this wraps up our latest news. Sorry it was so long, but hopefully it wasn't boring. I really will try to be more faithful with new posts. At least it hasn't been as long as Stacie's last post - hint, hint!

A Lauren and Micah Update

So I'm a little late in posting Lauren's 19th birthday. We celebrated with a cookout at home with everyone in attendance but Nathaniel. He had to work and keep the streets of Lebanon safe. Lauren loves cupcakes. These are homemade red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
We had a great time eating, playing ladder ball, having a fire in the fire pit
while we played Catch Phrase - our favorite family game.
Lauren and Dan at Faith Day at the Great American Ballpark. 300 of our closest friends from church went to the Reds game and then stayed for a concert by Mercyme.

A couple of weeks ago, we all went to a wedding in Detroit. Here are Lauren and Dan at the reception. Dan is not used to wearing ties so we had to get a picture! He cleans up really well.
And now to Micah's update. Last weekend was Homecoming and here is his group of friends. They are all into singing and acting. Most of them went as friends and had a great time.
Here is Micah with Rachel. Not only was she his date, she was his chauffer.
She has her license and is a Senior! Micah reaches high!

They had a great time eating and then at the dance. I can't believe my baby is a sophomore.

#1 Cubs Fan

The highlight of Greg's summer was going to Chicago and touring Wrigley Field. We actually all had a great time. And now that the Cubs have won the National League Central Division, we thought it would be a good time to share our pictures of our trip. We took geeky, tourist pictures and had a ball doing it. So did everyone else on the tour!
Click on this picture to see what the monument says. This is the famous Ernie Banks.
Greg took much delight in putting his hat where the players kept theirs!
Again, he took much delight in drinking from the player's fountain. He was
living in a dream world. He was really cute to watch.
The Trout family sitting in the dugout.
Greg "pretending" to call the bullpen for a new pitcher. Like I said, geeky, tourist pictures!
While we were there, the grounds crew was getting the field ready for the day's game against the Reds. One of their hoses got caught on something and Greg helped them untangle it. Now he can say he help the grounds crew at Wrigley Field! He was definitely in his element.
Sitting on the bench seats in the outfield.
We got to sit in the press box where all the reporters sit. While we were there, one of the phones rang and another tourist answered it. It was a credit card company - how funny is that.
View from the top
The tour was almost as good as going to a game. We tried to get tickets but they
were $100 a piece. Now Greg has major league dreams!

Hurricane Winds

We have a lot to be thankful for this week. I don't know if you heard but we were hit with Hurricane Ike winds last Sunday. Power has been out all over the area for a good part of the week. Schools were out, trees were blown over - it was crazy. We never lost power, but we didn't have internet service, cable, or telephones - you know, the necessities of life. I found out that as much as I enjoy those things, they have become major distractions. It was nice to actually play games again, (Mall Madness was my personal favorite this time, not Monopoly. I enjoyed spending money more than I did investing - what does that tell you except that it's a good thing Greg is in charge of the investing and saving! Is this a Rutherford trait?!) talk, catch up on housework, bake, quilt, and scrapbook. I got so much done. For 6 days it seemed like we were in a time warp. Kim and Nathaniel didn't have power until Wednesday evening so Kim stayed with us while Nathaniel was at work. Almost everything is back to normal but it really made us feel for the people who were hit directly with the hurricane. We had 75 mile an hour winds here for about 8 hours. I can't imagine being in Texas. Anyway, we are so thankful that we suffered no damage and that we had power to share. Maybe this week I can catch up on adding pictures on my blog!!!

The Wedding Singer

Micah sang in his first wedding this July. Greg did the ceremony and Micah was the special music. He sang Matthew West's song, "You Are Everything" and he did an amazing job. Becky Sheers got married. Those of you from Huntington probably remember Charles and Cathy Sheers, missionaries to Columbia. Becky is their granddaughter. We have been friends with them for years and it is really neat that Matt and Sandy have lived everywhere but we reconnected with them about 12 years ago. They are members of our church. How cool is that. They are very dear friends and we all had a part in Becky's wedding. Becky's brother, Sam, and Micah are really close friends and Sandy is my friend that walked the marathon with me last year.
The wedding singer in action!
Micah and Becky dancing at the reception. This was the dollar dance but instead of keeping the money, they made a donation to the Alzheimer's Foundation in honor of their grandparents. Charlie is not doing so well these days.
Micah's first day of school as a high school sophomore. This is literally the hardest part of his day. He did get up today, but I'm sure as the weeks go on, it won't be that easy.
He's worse than Nathaniel!
Here he is packing his backpack. Ready or not, here he comes.
He is a very hot sophomore! We went clothes shopping on Friday and got him all set.
You can tell he has grown up with a camera in his face because
he really doesn't mind having his picture taken.

By the way, I'm truly sorry that it has taken me so long to add a new post. My camera broke and I had to use Lauren's and then transfer pictures to her computer. Her computer is not always available so that's why you have been forced to see the garden pictures for so long. I PROMISE to add a new post every week. Now that we are back into a fall schedule, I have made Tuesday my day to add a new post. Hopefully our lives will be exciting enough to take pictures that are worthy of a blog! I still don't have a camera. After paying school fees, buying school clothes and school supplies, I probably won't be getting one in the near future.

How does our garden grow?!

God has supplied just enough rain, sun, and great soil this season to help us raise what appears to be a bumper crop of everything we planted. I'm sure you aren't as excited as we are so bear with me with these pictures. This is the first year we have ever planted a garden and I already can't wait to expand next year. If you come to see us, you can have a home grown meal! We planted corn, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers, beets, chives, and brussels sprouts. I have discovered that I would rather spend an hour in the garden than 15 minutes in the grocery store. I hate going to the store!
Greg planted the corn and we are going to have tons!
These pictures just don't do it justice and they were taken a week ago. This week everything grew by feet instead of inches. Here you can see beans by the corn, cucumbers, beets (story to follow), and tomatoes.
On the right side of the picture are brussels sprouts and some peppers.

Greg trimmed our trees and used the branches for bean poles. How's that for being resourceful!
This morning I checked on the garden and my beautiful beets had been eaten by a deer. I still have about 2/3's of a row left. I used to think deer were so cute, but not anymore. At Christmastime, we will NOT be celebrating with any reindeer! We had to put up fishing line to keep them out and it worked until last night. It apparently stuck it's head through and had a little feast. Nathaniel said that fishing line would keep the fish out but we needed deer line to keep them out - HA - he is so funny! Anyway, come in about 6 weeks to help us enjoy the fruits and vegetables of our labor.