Welcome Home Alli!

After 3 long months of crossing off the days, our sweet Alli is finally home from Nicaragua!

The poor bus driver couldn't get the door open fast enough for Alli. When he finally came to a complete stop, she was already pounding on the door to get out! I asked her how she had managed to get a front row seat and she said she didn't, she just ran to the front of the bus when she saw us waiting in the parking lot for her.

This is the best hug I've ever had!!!

Her skin felt so soft, her hair so silky, and her hug sooooo tight!

Everyone else had to wait their turn until I got my fill!

All the smiles were HUGE!

This next weird picture needs some explaining, but it is just too funny not to put on my blog. Her best friend Jocelyn, spent the same 3 months in Peru, but got home early afternoon on the same day. Since she lives in another state, Alli thought that she would've already left for home by the time Alli's bus arrived. SURPRISE! Joc's wonderful patient parents agreed to stick around and wait for Alli. When Alli spotted Joc in the crowd she sprinted to her and literally leapt into her arms. So here she is completely wrapped around her best friend, arms and legs! I'm standing back thinking "gosh, I'm glad Alli didn't do that to me, I'd have landed on my butt!" I am so glad that Alli has many wonderful friends that care about her at college!

(if you can't quite make out the picture, that's the two of them right in the middle of the shot)

Here's more of her wonderful friends ... it's an Alli-sandwich!

What did you bring me??? Fake Havianas, t-shirt, earrings, bracelet, coin purse for Abbi. Soccer jerseys and a wallet for Kevin. Wallets for Mitch and Dad. Pottery for Mom. And other interesting "food items", such as Cafe' con leche (not sure if I got that right) and Guayaba jelly. Also in her suitcase was a wrapped up machete that she hauled home for Kyle (it didn't fit in his suitcase), and an exploded shampoo bottle!

After the exciting gift-giving, she sat down with her laptop and IM'd her Nicaraguan sister to let her know she made it home OK. It was pretty cool to watch her type away in Spanish! We also get to hear phrases in Spanish occasionally that slip in with her English.

Here's Abbi and Alli holding the huge Welcome Home sign that we had placed in the yard.

We Love You Alli Jae!

Chickens and Horses and Ribbons, Oh My!

It's a Blue Ribbon Week for the Hawkins'. Well, mostly blue ....




Poultry Club ribbons Saddle Club ribbons




Abbi proudly "fluffed" her fancy before the judge made his way down the table to her. She received a blue ribbon.

Kevin and Mitch are hanging on to their broilers while the kind judge inspects the breasts of another competitors chicken. Wouldn't most men enjoy being a chicken judge??? They each received blue ribbons for their broilers and roasters, and then several Honor ribbons for some of the birds. An Honor ribbon is step above blue, and allows them to return to the table to compete only with the Honor - ees. Make sense?

Abbi has fallen in love with "contesting", which involves barrel, flags, and poles. Here she shows her fine form in barrels. She is a true cowgirl!

Then on to the fancier competitions, like Horsemanship, Showmanship, Riding, and Reining. She rides with good form in spite of never having taken any lessons. She won ribbons in all these classes except for Horsemanship! Hooray!

Here she gets a little coaching from our very own Horse Whisperer (aka Uncle Terry) before her Western Horsemanship contest. What would we do without him?!


I'm pretty sure the judge was impressed with her big smile, or perhaps it was simply the fact that Ginger is 25 years old and still looks so good!

A nice pose with Ginger before competitions got started. Please take note of the wonderful haircut on Ginger's mane ... yup, I did it and I'm proud of it!

I'm tired and I really don't know how this post is going to look. I'm pretty sure that none of the pictures are going to be lined up with the correct descriptions, but guess what? I don't care! See, that's what spending 14 hour days at the fair does to a person ... not to mention all the sugar, grease, and diet coke a person can possibly consume. Good Night All! And sweet dreams of lots of ribbons for your own kids - if you're brave enough to take the leap into 4-H!

Cleared For Take Off!

Kevin's dream ... to Fly the Friendly Skies! So begins a new and exciting chapter of his life! From the moment we walked out the front of the airport, I don't think I've ever seen a bigger and more constant smile pasted on Kevin's face!


Here's Kevin soaking it alllllll in! Dad looks pretty interested too! Dave worked hard in college and got his pilot's license in addition to his business degree. Soon after we were married, the busyness of life and having small children took over and he wasn't able to keep "current" (pilot speak). Also I might add, that he didn't have a big cheerleader of a wife... just a few twinges of fear left over from the tragedy that consumed our lives in 1985. So anyway, I could really see Father and Son taking this new adventure and "flying with it"! :)



After a thorough pre-flight check, Kevin climbed into the pilot's seat with his awesome instructor, Roger, taking his place in the co-pilot's seat. We know Roger well, as his kids went to Bethany and his daughter played volleyball with Alli. Roger owns and manages the flight school at the Goshen Airport, but also flies with a major airline out of O'Hare. So we felt very comfortable putting our son in his very capable hands.

Taxiing to the runway. Kevin used the rudder pedals to get the plane to the runway. Roger had said that he would have Kevin do as much of the flying as he felt capable of. Kevin even had the controls during take-off! He also did radio communications - "Diamond Four One Zero Alpha Mike on final ..." (yup, Kevin's looking over my shoulder and telling me everything I should write) :)

Here they go ... Cleared for Take Off! They flew over our farm and the red & white roofed hangar that my Dad had built for his small plane. Then checked out the RV inventory at Jayco. Continued north and made sure our lake house was still standing!

One happy guy! Only two more years until he can get his pilot's license! This 1/2 hour flight was definitely the best birthday present Kevin has ever received!

Life Is So Random!

Is your life all planned out or do you sometimes swing at "curve balls" and miss? I've discovered that if I just keep swinging, once in a while I "connect"! So to celebrate how random and exciting my life is, I'm just going to post pictures from the last several weeks. Sometimes I was just a swingin', and sometimes I actually connected!

For example: I really connected with this spur-of-the-moment garage sale I had at the lake. I was sick of looking at half-inflated water toys, old patio umbrella's, unused lamps, a never used sailboat, two flat-tired bikes, ... you get the idea! Well, never doubt the saying "one person's trash is another persons' treasure"! At the end of 3 hours on Thursday and 3 hours on Friday I had exactly 3 plastic grocery bags of (ahem) junk to take to Goodwill, and one patio table that I still intend to put a "free" sign on next time we're at the lake, and an old oven and microwave that should end up at the scrapyard! End result is an incredibly clean garage and 99 bucks in my pocket - which by the way was spent on fireworks, of course! In the midst of some junk-passing, Abbi enjoyed water-skiing. She's not afraid to try anything!

This is a picture of one of our last therapy sessions for Abbi's burn. The day of her final therapy appt. we were treated to paraplane rides. Dave had bought a certificate at our MYF auction this spring, and the weather was right for the pilot to make his way to our place to give rides. We still have a fairly decent runway that my Dad had put in when he had his plane at our farm. The first picture of this post was taken when the paraplane headed back home, with Kevin as his passenger. Dave drove to his house and picked a very happy Kevin up!

Mitch isn't all too pleased with this picture. But it's a great shot of how much he really "gets into" a job! He spent two days here at his shop and sand blasted a lift on the back of one of the HWT trucks then coated it with truck bed liner. What a mess!

Awww ... Abbi's completed room. I think Abbi & I really "connected" on this one! And this week she's in Ohio at camp. Maybe I'll spend at least one night in her bed, just to enjoy the results of my hard work!

Finally ... Happy Birthday to Kevin!!! My huggable, squeezable guy is 14 today. I told him that's impossible, because just last week he was Baby Kevin! The picture was taken earlier this summer, when he dug out the box of all his toy airplanes that he spent hours playing with as a much younger kid! Those were the days! On Thursday he will be enjoying a very real plane! We bought him a Discovery Flight at the Goshen Airport for his birthday. He will have the exciting privilege of flying with an instructor for 1/2 hour. I'm pretty sure that'll be much better than flying the planes he's been flying on his Flight Simulator that we have downloaded on our computer. He's been to Australia, Alaska, and Florida on that one. I wonder where 1/2 hour will take him?

So folks ... just keep swingin'! That's what keeps life exciting!